The Heroine Addict's Downfall
by Hermiione
Summary: Clary and Jace find themselves in hot water when, after a night of heavy drinking and sinning Clary ends up pregnant. How will this change the future for Jace? Will the football scholarship he's been offered have to go the way of the wind? Will Clary be stuck with a baby? Hard M. Lemons. Clace. NO INCEST! EDITED REPOST! AU/AH OOC. Co-authored with reppinda5o3!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So this story is a repost and has been heavily edited and reworked from the beta is reppinda5o3 !

* * *

I'm a heroine addict, I need to have sex with women who have saved someone's life

Mitch Hedberg

* * *

It was the first game of the season and Clary was warming up with the other girls. Clary was a cheerleader on Mahopac's varsity cheer squad. Her best friend, Izzy, was the captain of the team. "Girls get those hamstrings warmed up I don't want anyone pulling a muscle!" It just so happened that if Clary played her cards right she would succeed Izzy's spot as captain.

Aline, one of the younger girls on the squad was watching the football players warm up with avid enthusiasm, phone out and all. "Penhallow! Put the phone away and do 50 jumping jacks." Isabelle barked at her.

"But-!" She stammered.

"I don't want to hear it! We're here to cheer the boys on not take pictures of them in their warm-ups." Izzy barked at Aline.

Aline settled next to Clary and started stretching. "She's a total hard ass," Aline mumbled to Clary.

"She's actually not that bad considering she has 15 girls and 5 guys to look after and make sure we all do our stunts correctly."

Aline looked affronted but Clary paid her no mind. Clary had been stretching for about fifteen minutes and felt like it was time to jog for a little while. The stands were still empty but in about thirty minutes that would all change.

"I'm going to go jog, make sure you warm up!" She said to the Aline.

Clary took off at a jog around the track which encompassed the football field. As she jogged she got a good look at the boys, most of which were her friends. Jace, the star quarterback was throwing and she caught his gaze as she passed him, jogging. "Heya Clary, ready for the game?"

"You bet, hope you're ready to throw down!"

"Always am!" Jace said, laughing with his other teammates.

Clary kept running around the elliptical track and ended up doing 2 laps saying hello to the various friends she had on the football team. She slowed down to a walk and finished the third lap walking back to the cheerleaders. "Hey, what's everyone doing?"

"We've got to practice our throwing so Clary gets ready." One of the seniors said to her.

People were starting to file in for the football game and Clary's heart soared with excitement. She loved cheering and she loved cheering for this team. What she loved the most was the after party Izzy was sure to invite her to afterward.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jace was in the locker room gearing up. Alec was roughhousing with the other boys the thrum of energy pulsed through the locker room. Jace had been captain on this team for two years, he'd been the first junior to be nominated and promoted to captain in 15 years. He was good and he knew it.

"C'mon guys stop fuckin' around." He grumbles at his teammates.

They all laughed but no one followed him as he headed outside. They knew this was how they won the game. Jace headed out to the grassy patch out of the side of the locker room and took his helmet with him. He checked to make sure no one was watching him and he kissed the cross necklace at his throat. Religion wasn't a big deal to him but he did believe in a higher power. He had to do this before every game and the boys knew better than to disturb him while he was getting his head in the right space for the game. He said a silent prayer for speed, agility, and strength. He always felt lighter after he requested guidance. He put his headphones in and turned up the volume.

This was another secret of his. He had one song that he listened to before every game. The Chain by Fleetwood Mac played through his headphones. He got down in a plank position and started warming up with mountain climbers.

 _Listen to the wind blow, watch the sun rise  
Running in the shadows, damn your love, damn your lies  
And if, you don't love me now  
You will never love me again  
I can still hear you saying  
You would never break the chain_

He was at 50 mountain climbers. He pushed himself to go faster, harder. His breath came in measured pants. He knew exactly how to warm up, this was something he'd done a thousand times. He was at 100 mountain climbers and decided to switch to push ups. His throwing arm needed to get a little more warmed up. He didn't want to wear out his throwing arm and coach always wanted him on point so he only did 30 push-ups. He stood up and did 100 jumping jacks to finish it all off. He was good to go.

"Son you better be ready it's time!" Coach Herondale said.

"Yessir." He said shaking the sweat off.

* * *

After all the girls had warmed up and they had practiced a basket toss several times they'd eaten up all their time to get ready and the girls rallied around where the boys were going to come out of the locker rooms. Coach Herondale, Jace's father, liked to put on as much of show as possible. Clary grabbed her pom poms, she could feel the buzz of nervous energy going through her. Jace and Alec (Jace's best friend) were up for scholarships this year and even though there weren't scouts in the crowd tonight she knew it would be a good game.

In the moment she had spaced she noticed her mother was in the stands now and she waved to her. "Are the boys coming or what?"

Just then, Coach Herondale strode out into the crowd and Clary grabbed her pom poms. The girls broke out into cheering and they waved their pom poms.

The team ran out of the locker room, waving to the crowd. Jace came out last and kept his head down, ignoring the shouts of "Herondale! Herondale! Herondale!" from the crowd.

Clary moved away from the locker rooms and they all gathered in front of the stands. They huddled together, all twenty of them and Isabelle held court. "Ok girls, we're playing against a really good team tonight, the Tartans are a strong team so our boys are going to need your full attention. She put her hand in the center and the rest of the girl's hands followed, including Clary's. "3-2-1, go Mahopac Angels!" They shouted and cheered. Through the crowd of people in the stands Clary could see her mother smiling and waving at her as she got into formation. Their opening cheer was going to be done to Beyonce's Freedom. It was one of Clary's favorite songs. Clary could smell the kettle corn being made by the concessions stand and caught a glimpse of someone making cotton candy. She sighed, Isabelle turned on the music and the kick off started, she _loved_ football.

She was cheering but she was more focused on the game than anything, Jace had the ball and he passed it to Alec, then Alec passed to the ball to Jordan. It was the first down and they'd already moved the ball 15 yards. She came back to cheer and realized it was time for her first stunt. She had to do a basket toss. She put her feet on the other girl's arms and flew into the air. She felt so free up here. She wasn't paying attention to the game now, she couldn't, she had to focus on the stunt but as she piked with her toes pointed perfectly she realized she loved being in the air more than anything else in the world. She took a deep breath as she started to fall back to the ground and she landed perfectly in the other girl's arms

She got back on the ground and they started a cheer for the offense. "Ten yards, ten more yards /For our team, it's not hard! / Give me a T-O-U-C-H-D-O-W-N! / Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown!" She rustled her pom poms in the air and gave a loud whoop.

Izzy rallied them and told them to do Spirit Up. Izzy changed the music and they started cheering. "Angels! / Keep it up! / Come on! / Keep that Angels / Spirit up!" All the girls shouted in unison.

The rest of the game seemed to go by in a blur of completed passes, touchdowns and field goals. Jace had decimated the rival team with his amazing throwing arm and she'd cheered him to victory.

After the game had been won Izzy said, "There's going to be a party at Jace's you want to come? I know you're kind of into him."

Clary was pleased to be invited but had no idea how Izzy knew she was into Jace. "What do you mean 'I know you're kind of into him?'" Clary said, puzzled.

"You were staring at him the whole game!" Izzy said.

Clary shrugged it off. "I'd have to be blind to not be into him."

"Why don't we go back to your house and I'll dress you up accordingly?"

Mahopac wasn't far from Clary's house so they walked back 5 blocks total. When they got home Luke and Jocelyn were upstairs so Clary safely snuck Isabelle into her room. There, they picked out some outfits and talked about the game.

"You have to admit he's super fucking hot." Isabelle babbled in her ear.

"Of course he is but that doesn't mean I want to bang him!" Clary said flushing. She smoothed over her outfit and gazed in the mirror. She was impressed with what she saw. Her slim frame was covered in one of Izzy's numerous black cocktail dresses that she'd stashed at Clary's house. This particular number had a plunging neckline with slits reaching all down the sides. Risking her mother's potential wrath, Clary had "borrowed", her mother's favorite pair of black leather heels to tie the outfit together. She was going to scuff them, she knew it but that was the price you paid for being fashion forward.

Izzy, looking glamorous as usual in a black mini skirt, a shimmering silver top, and boots that hit just above her knee, looked Clary over appraisingly.

"Lipstick." Was the only comment the raven haired girl had after a thorough examination. Snatching a tube labeled "Fresh Blood" in a silver scrawl, Isabelle grabbed Clary's face in her hands, artfully applying the color.

"How are we getting out of here?" Izzy wondered aloud, as she carefully blotted Clary's lips. "You know Luke will never let you out the front door looking dressed up."

Clary wasn't sure Izzy's definition of "dressed up" was the same as the rest of the world's. In Alec's, Izzy's older brother's, words, most people would call Izzy's "dressed up" more streetwalker chic.

"Luke would flip his lid, no doubt. We can just hop out the window and leave them a note."

"A note?"

"I don't want mom to worry." Clary said defensively, "We'll be home by one tops right?" She said hopefully.

"More like three or four. Remember last time we went to one of Jace's parties? I'm not even planning on going home tonight. Probably just crash there."

Clary sighed. "I'll just tell them we went to your house. To have a movie marathon with Max or something."

"Atta girl!" Isabelle enthused.

"Grab your shit. Let's go." Clary scratched out a quick note and left it on her bedside table. Opening the window and hopped out onto the crisp leaves of her front yard, Izzy on her heels.

Jace's wasn't far from Clary's house so they walked. Clary's feet would hate her tomorrow but the promise of the night ahead made it worth it. Even at the other end of the street, they could hear the loud music blasting from Jace's house. The golden boy of Mahopac High School parent's were always out of town. This made it the perfect place for Mahopac's number one party spot.

Once they pushed past the throng of teenagers on the lawn, Izzy opened the door to the house. If there wasn't a bra hanging from the ceiling fan and the unpleasant aroma of cheap vodka mixed with vomit permeating the air it would have been a beautiful home. Unfortunately, _that_ was **not** the case. Roughly seventy seniors and juniors from Mahopac High School were packed into the elegant house. Who knows how many more individuals had come to the party, spilled out onto the lawn.

"Drink, then pong table," Izzy said, as she grabbed Clary's hand and pulled her through the crowd.

The kitchen was filled with a veritable cascade of bodies, layered between thick clouds of smoke. Clary was pretty sure she was getting a contact high from it all. Finally, they found the liquor. The back counter of the room was covered in an array of different colored bottles. The girls each poured a generous helping of vodka into cups, adding a splash of cranberry juice to top it all off. They fought their way through the haze of people and out into the dining room. The massive mahogany table was usually used for formal dinners, but tonight it played host to a very different activity. Beer pong.

The captain of the football team held court at the top of the table. His hair glinted under the fluorescent bulbs of the chandelier, painting him the literal golden boy of Mahopac High. With a grand five cups left on his side and two on his opponents, Jace Herondale seemed to be slaying.

The competitive side of Clary perked up, "Can Izzy and I play winner"

Jace nodded, not taking his eyes off of the game. His commitment and focus were laser sharp. Behind him, his pong partner Alec, who also happened to be Izzy's brother, stared down the competition. Needless to say, they won the game.

While the boys re-racked the cups, Izzy and Clary half-heartedly strategized. The music switched to something more upbeat than the previous song and Clary's hips swayed unconsciously. Pulling her curled hair up into a high ponytail, she and Izzy took their places behind the table.

"We go first," Alec said, folding his arms across his chest, aiming the intimidating glare he usually saved or the field at his sister and significantly shorter friend. Jace pulled back his arm and aimed for the front cup. The ball lands with a distinct 'plonk' in the front cup of their rack. Alec hollered and high fived Jace. Their excitement ended abruptly with a death glare for Izzy.

"You guys gotta drink everything," Alec said smugly, gesturing to the cups, but not meeting Izzy's eyes.

"What!" Clary's eyes widened.

"We didn't agree to these rules, Alec," Izzy growled.

"House rules!" Alec snapped.

Jace nodded coolly, picking up his own cup of beer, "Go on then." His lips turned up into the sexy smirk that would have made most of the girls at the high school drop to their knees. Izzy and Clary just glared.

* * *

It was chilly, but Clary didn't feel the cold. She was tipsy, definitely, but she'd sworn to Izzy that she would finish the vodka and cranberry juice from earlier. Jace stepped out of the house and found her.

"You alright? Sorry, Alec was a douche, I shouldn't have made you and Iz drink all that beer."

"You know you look amazing tonight?" Jace said softly to her.

"You're just saying that because Izzy dressed me up." She said flushing slightly.

"Izzy does a damn good job of dressing you up then." He slung an arm around her nearly bare shoulders and said, "Aren't you cold?" There was just barely a chill in the air that came in early September but Clary wasn't wearing much and there were tiny goosebumps on her skin.

"Here take my jacket." He said.

"Oh no, that's ok I was just having a break from all the smoke," Clary said smiling up at him.

"Alright. Are you sure you're ok? That _was_ a lot of beer and I know you don't usually drink much."

"Yeah I'm good, will you dance with me?" Clary asked. She didn't usually dance at these parties. She was too embarrassed, too shy, but she'd had a lot of liquor and Jace was looking at her with an expression she couldn't quite read.

"Yeah, c'mon I know just the song," Jace said taking her hand in his and dragging her back inside.

Jace and Clary had known each other for years, had many mutual friends and went to the same school, so she thought she knew plenty about him. When they get inside they go to what must've been the living room (only the furniture was all pushed to the walls of the room, effectively creating a dance floor) and changed the song. Clary didn't know the words to the song but it was catchy and as they found a place in the middle of the room she started to move her hips.

 _And I hardly hear your voice, it's like you up to somethin'_

 _Why do I always feel alone, but you don't owe me nothin'_

She knew she wanted to dance with him but the other girls on the dance floor were all over the boys. She lets her hips follow the beat of the music and Jace turned her so her ass was flush with his hips. She didn't know if this was a good idea… she and Jace were friends and she wasn't sure how much she wanted to give into her crush on him. Still, the music thumped on and she kept moving her hips to the sound of the rhythm.

 _We used to go all night, but now it's just a fuckin' bar fight_

 _I know you hate it when I talk like that_

 _Aw right, you remember prom night_

 _Yeah that was a bomb night_

When the song ended Clary decided she had something she needed to talk to Jace about, something that had been bothering her for ages. "C'mon I want to talk to you about something," Clary said finishing her drink.

Jace looked disappointed that his dance was over but they retreated to the crowded kitchen and Clary got another vodka and cranberry juice. Jace filled a cup halfway with ice and tequila. Clary pulled him outside to a nook in the front yard, where they could be nearly alone.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Jace said taking a sip of tequila.

"I'm a virgin," Clary said suddenly and Jace gagged on his tequila. She clapped him on the back several times and his watery eyes fixed on her.

"Yeah, I figured as much since you're 16. What do you want me to do about it?"

"Well.." Clary flushed. "I've never thought losing my virginity was a big deal and I don't know why girls save themselves for the 'right' guy because face it, there is no right guy. I just want to get over all that awkward virgin stuff and... " It just didn't make sense to her to wait for the right guy. Jace was her friend, he was attractive and definitely more experienced than her so it seemed like a simple solution to a complex problem.

"Are you sure Clary?"

"Positive."

"Let's finish our drinks and see where that goes. I'm not saying yes but I'm saying no either." Jace said and Clary smiled. Finally! Someone who would do this for her.

* * *

Clary was in the process of finishing her drink when she walked by the bathroom door on the first floor. She saw a dark pool of black hair poised over the toilet with the door open. "Izzy?"

Groaning, Izzy said, "In here!" As her stomach gave another violent retch. Clary crowded in the bathroom with Izzy and held her hair.

"Hey what happened Iz?"

"I played truth or dare and got dared to do five shots of Everclear**."

"Oh my god! Iz that's so stupid you could have really gotten sick!"

"I'm fine!" But just then she retched violently into the toilet. "Can you get my brother?" Izzy asked weakly.

"Yeah sure. Stay there." Clary went back out to the party and found Alec and Jace playing beer pong at the kitchen table again.

"Hey, Alec!" Clary shouted over the music.

He had been in the middle of trying to shoot the pong ball, it missed and went wild. "Damnit Clary!"

"It's not my fault! Iz needs you, she's sick."

"Figures I get to be party mom," Alec said disparagingly. He made his way to the front of the house where his sister was waiting for him.

Clary stepped away from the pong table and Jace caught her in his grip. "Does anyone know you asked me to do this?"

"No. Izzy knows that we're friends but that's something the whole school knows. She doesn't suspect that I'd do anything like this."

"Good. I'm 18 and if we do this no one can know."

"Jace, it's not that big of a deal!"

"Yeah, it definitely is. How do you think Luke would feel about this?" Jace asked and Clary flushed. "That's what I thought."

"Do you want to just get this over with?"

"Yeah, is there a room free upstairs?"

"My room is locked so yeah."

"Ok let's go."

* * *

Clary thought the whole thing would be rather transactional. But that wasn't Jace. The music of the party faded away while they were upstairs and Jace put on something slow. "Why do you want to do this?" He asked her. "Couldn't you wait for someone - a boyfriend - who wanted to do this? I mean have you ever had a boyfriend?" He was sitting on the bed and he pulled her down to sit next to him.

"I've never had a boyfriend, I mean… I've kissed Simon, but that's not the same thing. Iz gets to have so much fun hooking up with people and I get jealous. The whole no strings attached idea is really appealing to me. I'm not looking for anything past friends with benefits with a guy -" She stopped and realized Jace must think she wanted to friends with benefits with him and decided she needed to clear that up right away. "I don't want this to mess up our friendship. You mean a lot to me Jace, but as a friend. For a girl being a virgin means not being able to give head because you don't know how and not being able to have random hookups whenever you want because you're afraid it'll hurt."

"Isn't that _exactly_ what this is, Clare-Bear?"

He only called her that when he was trying to get on her good side, most likely to try to get her to say she didn't want this.

"Yeah but…" Clary sighed.

"You're on birth control right?"

"No. My mom won't let me."

He frowned. "I have condoms, it's no big deal."

Clary placed her hand on Jace's thigh. "Kiss me."

Jace leaned in and kissed her. She kissed him back allowing her hands to trace through the silky strands of his blonde hair. She pulled his bottom lip into her mouth and sucked and nipped his lip momentarily earning her a sigh from him. The slow melody played in the background and the moment seemed frozen forever in time but then it shattered as she let his lip go with a pop.

"You're a good kisser," Jace said softly.

"Thank you," Clary said blushing.

"You want me to help you take this off?" He said, running his finger down the plunging neckline of her dress.

"Yeah sure." She stood up and started to unzip the dress, letting him finish when she couldn't reach the zipper anymore. It fell in a pool around her feet and she stepped out of it, revealing a lacy black bra and matching panties.

"You look perfect." He whispered.

She leaned in and kissed him again, allowing their tongues to dance for long moments. As she kissed him, her hands floated down to his white t-shirt and pulled up the hem, feeling the outline of his ribs over her fingers. Only when the need for air and more skin to skin contact became an issue did she break the kiss.

"Put your hands over your head." She asked him and he complied and she tugged the shirt off him. She reveled in the fact that he was built like a god, all hard angles of muscle and bone. It was so much better than she hoped for. Her mouth found it's way to his neck and she latched onto him, kissing and sucking the long column of his neck. He let out a little whimper as she sucked lower, towards his collar bone.

"Clary, you're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure." She said, surfacing for air.

"Get on the bed, honey."

She flushed the color of her hair. She wanted this so much, so, so much. "Ok." She got on the bed and slipped off her panties, laid bare for him. "Let me suck you off."

"You don't have to," Jace said, running his fingers through her hair.

"I want to," Clary said smiling up at him, clumsily she unbuckled his belt and laid him down on the bed, she unbuttoned his pants and shimmied them down to his knees. He was almost bursting out of his jeans he's so hard and when she fishes him out of his boxers she's surprised how big he is. He's not huge but still, she doesn't know how she's going to fit all of _that_ inside her.

She nestled herself in between his legs and pulls his cock into her mouth. He tastes good… she bobs her head up and down a couple times on him and he takes one of her hands and puts it on his shaft. "Jerk me while you suck." He muttered to her. His eyes were closed and he looked pretty blissed out. She could feel how wet she was, too. She wanted to go further with him but sucked his cock a little longer. When gentle whimpers of "Clary!" start tumbling from his lips she figures it's time.

"I'm ready are you?" She asks him.

"Yeah." He rasps.

She lies down next to him and pulls her panties down. She looks at him through her eyelashes and _damn_ is it just the alcohol or does it almost seem like the light glinting off his hair makes a halo?

"It's going to sting at first but I promise I'll make you feel good." He says as he takes out a condom.

"Ok."

He flopped down on the bed next to her and smirked. He took one of her nipples in his mouth and sucked gently. Desire bloomed behind her navel. If this was what she was missing out on then she was glad she was discovering it now.

He let her nipple go with a pop and gently touched the inside of her thighs with the tips of his fingers, dragging them down to the inside of her knees and gently nudging her knees open. He slipped a finger inside her and pressed his thumb _there_ , rubbing in small circles.

"Jace!" Clary whined. And then he did it, he did something inside of her that made the heat in her belly coil.

She heard a condom wrapper tearing but she was so blissed out she honestly wasn't paying much attention. "You ready?"

He said as he lined himself up with her. "Yeah just do it."

He pushed into her and she could feel something tearing and a surge of pain, erasing her pleasure. "Shhh, it only lasts for a minute." He calmed her.

"Just don't move yet ok?" Clary whimpered. She could feel her virginity being torn away and it stung terribly but as he stayed still inside her she could feel the feeling of pain being replaced by a feeling fullness that was enjoyable even if it did burn slightly. So he stayed still for long moments until her hands wrapped around his back and she pressed him closer to her. "Ok, go ahead."

Gently he started rocking inside her and it felt… tight -almost like he was too big for her small frame. His strokes were slow and gentle as if he knew the honor he'd been given by taking her virginity. The too tight feeling was slowly giving way to pleasure as he started to fuck into her a little more quickly. Soon he was really, actually fucking her and the whole room was filled with the sound of her soft whimpers and his harsh breaths. He reached between them and found _that_ spot. She could feel the coil of pleasure in her belly building and building this was an incredible feeling and she couldn't believe what she'd been missing out on. Soon the pleasure was so great she was scratching his back with her nails and she realized she was on the edge. Jace's movements became more jerky, less predictable and she felt like she was flying. White stars burst behind her eyes as she rode out her first climax.

Jace rode out his own orgasm seconds later and stopped moving inside her, pulling out ruefully. Jace rolled off her and tangled their fingers together. "Are you alright?" He said breathing heavily.

"Yeah, it felt good." She said with a smile, looking over at him. He kissed her sweetly on the lips. "I'm so tired." She said as her eyes drooped lazily.

"Don't worry you can crash here tonight I'll get something to clean up with and you can go to sleep."

"Thanks, Jace." He pulled the condom off and gasped.

"Oh fuck." He groaned.

"What?" She said sleepily.

"The condom broke."

"What?! Oh my god."

"You should take a shower and try to get as much of it out of you as possible."

But the alcohol was catching up with her. She didn't know if she could stand in the shower. "Help me?"

He decided carrying her was the best course of action and it dawned on him how stupid he'd been. He'd gotten an underage girl drunk and then slept with her, even if he did have her explicit permission to do this he didn't think it'd end well if anyone found out about this.

Clary was feeling so sleepy so she let sleep take her over and closed her eyes.

Jace was getting worried when she stopped talking to him. He showered her off as best he could and grabbed a towel from the closet to dry her hair. God, he hoped this wasn't going to come back to bite him in the ass. His alcohol induced haze was swiftly clearing and turning into panic. When her hair was dry he laid her in bed with a bucket by the bed and turned the music off. There was nothing he could do right now.

So he laid down and turned off the light and hoped the sweetest girl he knew didn't just turn his life upside down.

* * *

** Everclear is a legal moonshine that's about 75.5% pure ethanol.

** I do not own anything to do with TMI, or the songs, The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, Freedom by Beyonce or #1 by Dev.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: My Beta for this chapter is reppinda5o3!

* * *

"Sometimes I fall more in love with an echo than the real thing"

Shinji Moon

* * *

Clary woke up the next morning and looked around at the posters on the walls. She didn't recognize the posters or the blue-ish paint on the walls. Then she turned her head and saw a mass of finely curled blonde hair next to her head. She wasn't a virgin anymore, _they'd done it_! There was a dull ache between her legs but that thought was quickly surpassed by the roiling in her stomach. She darted from the bed and made for the bathroom. The contents of whatever was left from the previous night ended up in the toilet bowl. She went to hold her hair but notices someone has already pulled it back. Jace is standing over her looking troubled.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm _great_ ," Clary said weakly.

"Let me get you some water."

"Thanks."

* * *

Makeup smudged and doing the proverbial walk of shame out of Jace's house she stumbles on Izzy passed out next to Alec on the couch.

"Iz?"

Izzy wakes up with a fright. "Clary!" Izzy said, sitting up too fast. She held her head at the temples and groaned. "How're you feeling? I feel like I got hit by a truck."

"Same basically. C'mon you can come over for breakfast."

When Clary arrived at her house she almost had her key in the door when Luke opened the door and stared down parentally at her. "Where were you last night?"

"I left you a note!" Clary squeaked.

"After you escaped out your window dressed like a hooker..." But there's no malice in his voice. Luke's voice falls off, he rolled his eyes and swung the door open. "Hello, Izzy."

"Hi, Luke," Izzy said laxidazily.

"I guess I shouldn't ask if you two were good because judging from the state of you both the answer is no."

Clary and Izzy said nothing but looked down at ground shamefully.

"C'mon your mother is making chocolate chip pancakes," Luke said, as he waved them inside.

Izzy smiled and Clary jumped up and down. Jocelyn stepped up behind Luke and said, "Go change into something more appropriate girls."

Izzy and Clary went to change and as soon as the door was closed Izzy posed her question that she'd clearly been dying to ask, "So where did you go last night? We tried to play pong with Jace and Alec and lost and then you disappeared outside. I don't remember anything else." Clearly, Izzy was trying to get the post-party digs and Clary was only too happy to spill.

"Oh I went outside and smoked and you got dared to do shots of Everclear and I had to get Alec to take care of you," Clary said as she toed off her mother's heels which were slightly scuffed.

"That's shitty." Izzy bemoaned. "How'd you spend the rest of the night?" Izzy said as she shimmied out of the silvery top from the night before and rummaged through Clary's drawers to find some of her own clothing stashed at the back of the dresser.

"I danced with Jace and we kind of hooked up." Clary supplied a little begrudgingly. She slipped out of the cocktail dress from the night before and unclasped her bra. Being on the same cheerleading team, they'd long ago lost any sense of shame when it came to their bodies.

"What!" Izzy said in surprise as she stopped halfway through unzipping the skirt she was trying to change out of.

"Yeah, I just didn't want to be virgin anymore. It's so boring." Clary said as she tugged on cheer shorts.

"Well, I guess that was good to get it out of the way but isn't Jace kind of old for you? He's 18 right?" Izzy said as she resumed unzipping the skirt and discarded it onto Clary's bedroom floor as she too pulled on matching hot pink cheer shorts.

"Yeah, he is."

"Was it good?" She said wiggling her eyebrows.

"Ugh." She said trying to remember what had happened. She remembered most of the foreplay and sucking him off but she didn't remember most of the deed. "I barely remember it. Anyway, the condom broke." Clary said as she pulled a t-shirt over her head.

"What! Oh my god Clary, that's serious we should go get the morning after pill like right now!" Izzy said a little too loudly.

"It's no big deal, he put me in the shower afterward I think we got it all," Clary said plaintively. "And be quiet!"

"Still, Clary!" Izzy's tone was warning, "You never know, yanno?" Izzy's voice sounded like an ominous warning, more ominous than the sound of her mother screaming when she found out. Jocelyn could be an overprotective momma bear and even then… that would be nothing to how her brother would behave if he found out.

"Yeah, I know. But I don't have any money!" Clary said rifling around in her purse. She opened it and emptied the contents onto the bed. An explosion of old receipts, library material, and candy wrappers burst onto the bed but as Clary rummaged through it there were only a few spare ones. " I think it's like 50 dollars!"

"Shit…" They finished getting changed and Izzy pulled on her t-shirt in silence.

Clary's phone went off and she looked to see it was Jace.

[ J. Herondale ] How're you feeling Clare-bear?

[ C. Fray ] Like shit but I'll live. You?

[ J. Herondale ] Aww. Do you want to have lunch later?

[ C. Fray ] Yes, please. Should we talk?

[ J. Herondale ] Yeah I think so. Last night was perfect I hope you remember some of it?

She thought for a minute. It was hazy but she definitely remembered most of it.

[ C. Fray ] Yeah I remember!

[ J. Herondale ] See you around 1:30?

[ C. Fray ] Yup.

"Jace wants to have lunch with me," Clary said happily as she removed her makeup from the previous night.

"Damn, he's one fine piece of ass. If you're interested in him you better snap him up!" Izzy said, as she too removed her makeup from the previous night.

"I plan on it if he'll have me. Doesn't he have kind of an on-off girlfriend?" Clary said uncertainly. Clary had been too drunk to think that Jace might potentially have another girl on the line.

"Yeah! Kaelie Whitewillow. I don't know if they're on or off but I hope they're off for your sake!" Izzy said speaking in tones louder than were strictly necessary for this topic.

"Oh my god Izzy! What if he cheated on Kaelie with me?" Clary said in horror

"Then you're going to incur some very serious wrath from her. It could be bad. You should ask him about it. Honesty is the best policy. Tell me how it was though!"

"What?! It was pretty transactional. I mean he was really sweet and kind and gentle but yeah, I just didn't want to be virgin anymore."

"And he agreed?" Izzy said chucking a tube of lip gloss at her friend.

Clary ducked but it hit her in the ear all the same. "Yes! Iz! Ouch! But you can't tell anyone because he's 18 and he could get into trouble!"

"You're jailbait, Clary…" She said warningly.

Clary shrugged. "I don't think it'll be that big of a deal. Jace is a big boy, he can handle himself."

* * *

Lunch time came fast and Clary was still feeling hungover. She was vaguely aware of the last time she'd gone to one of Jace's blow out parties and had sworn off drinking, she thought she might have to do something similar now.

As far as she knew she was just meeting Jace at his place since he hadn't specified anywhere in particular. She rang the doorbell once and was greeted moments later by Jace, shirtless clad only in sweatpants rolled at the waist. "C'mon in. I've got some burgers on the grill."

"That sounds delicious." She said coming and removing her sandals and padding out to the deck with him. It didn't go unnoticed that the mess from last night was largely not cleaned up. There was the same sneaker and a bra hanging from the ceiling fan in the living room from the last night, plus several additions and the kitchen was a filthy mess of over turned red Solo cups and empty multi-colored booze bottles.

"Let me just check the burgers and we can talk for a few minutes."

"Do you need help cleaning up from last night?" Clary said as she sat down at the patio outside. This _had_ been cleared off of Solo cups and various ashes from people smoking. The table gleamed and it was set for two people.

"What? Oh no, Alec and some of the guys are coming back tonight and we're just going to make a mess again. My dad doesn't get back for another month from London so we're good." He said as he flipped the burgers.

"Oh alright. So what should we talk about?"

"Well, I just wanted to make sure you were ok with what happened last night since you were pretty drunk."

"I remember most of it, it's not a big deal. I'm fine." She said, smiling at him.

"Did you want there to be more than just the one time?" He said, poking the burgers on the grill and smirking over his shoulder at him.

"Well…" Clary sighed, this was getting into dangerous friends with benefits territory. She didn't want that. "Aren't you with Kaelie?" If she could have Jace to herself she would definitely snap him up. Boys like Jace were never single for long. It was important to her that they start on terms of honesty. Last night had been a crazy drunken decision that didn't show her in her best light. If they were going to try for a relationship out of this mess then it was important to her that they do it right.

"Not really, she's my ex," Jace said as he got the burgers off the grill.

Clary looked up at him as she placed a burger and bun in front of her. She didn't know…he was probably just asking her to be one of the supposedly many girls he kept around on the side. Hadn't she just seen Jace with Kaelie the other day though? She didn't want him to try to play her.

"So you're not involved with her at all?" Clary asked, putting ketchup on her burger. If she asked for the truth, she doubted he would try to deceive her.

Jace sighed, "Not really." He said.

"Ok..." Clary felt like he was skirting the issue. 'Not really' probably meant they were still fucking. Which made her feel like just another chick he was keeping on the side.

"She doesn't mean anything to me, Clary," Jace said, a definitive note in his voice. "I'd be happy to never speak to her again if it meant I got to call you my girlfriend."

Clary flushed. "Why don't you talk to her first and then we can talk about that? I don't want to encroach on another girl's territory."

Jace gave a derisive snort. "Kaelie _is_ very territorial. But if we date we'll kind of have to keep it on the down-low because you're sixteen."

"Let me look up the law on that before we go any further," Clary said. She didn't want to get Jace in any trouble. She looked up "Statutory Rape Laws in NY" she tapped on the first Google result. She read for a minute and then looked up at him.

"The article says the age of consent is 17 but there's something called the Romeo and Juliet law that allows for underage teens to consent if they're within two years of each other's age. We're good."

"Oh, that's good news," Jace said as Clary put her phone away. "I'll get back to you later today about Kaelie. She and I haven't been getting along very well lately so I'm sure she'll be glad to get rid of me. Shouldn't you think about getting Plan B because of last night? I don't want and whoopsies."

Clary flushed. She couldn't imagine getting pregnant. She had half a mind to ask him if she could borrow the money for the morning after pill if they were going to make a stab at dating. Asking a friend for money was weird but asking someone you'd just slept with was even weirder. "I think it's like 50 dollars and I'm broke as a joke."

"Can't you get it for free at the clinic?"

She raised her eyebrows. She didn't know that and she'd never been to the free clinic. "Uh yeah, I guess you could. I've never been, honestly."

"You should go and get on birth control and the morning after pill." He said licking some ketchup off his thumb. "If we're going to actually date it's probably a good idea."

She flushed red. She thought of having romantic, slow sex with Jace and it gave her tingles down her spine. "Yeah, it probably is."

It dawns on her that she didn't want to go to the free clinic alone… maybe Izzy would go with her? "Will they help me because I'm underage?"

"Definitely. Alec's been going there for ages for STD screenings, which, by the way, you should do since the condom broke last night, I could go with you." He said opening a coke with his sticky fingers.

She flushed, if possible, a deeper shade of crimson. "You don't have anything do you?"

"I got tested four months ago so I don't think so but it's always better to be safe than sorry. Kaelie isn't exactly known for her loyalty and I'm sure she's been passed around half the football team at this point."

Clary cringed. What was Jace doing with a girl like that? "Well, it would be great if you could come with me. Izzy is really under the weather from last night." She was overwhelmed, albeit momentarily, how sweet Jace was being about this.

"Yeah sure, are you done eating?" She'd eaten about half of a very large burger and decided she was done.

"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks for lunch."

"No problem."

Jace grabbed the keys to his Audi and they headed out the door. The waiting room at the free clinic was deserted and it was a good thing they'd come when they did, the clinic closed in an hour. She got there and stuttered as she tried to speak to the woman, gracefully Jace took over, "We both need STD testing and my friend needs the morning after pill."

The secretary nodded and they took a seat. There was a very pregnant girl reading a magazine in the corner but other than that it was just them. The nurse called Jace first and Clary waited patiently for her turn.

When the nurse called her name she was nervous. She led her to a room with diagrams of uteruses and vaginas. "I just need you to sign here for the HIV/AIDS testing."

Clary signed her name and the nurse took some blood. She hated it and needles scared the crap out of her but she had to do this. "The doctor will be in momentarily. Take off everything from the waist down."

Now Clary was really nervous. The nurse had left a horrible paper gown for her and as she put it on she felt like this was the world trying to punish her for being reckless. Luckily, she only had to wait a few minutes for the doctor to arrive. A petite Asian woman introduced herself as Dr. Moon.

"Clary I'm just here to get a swab to send back to the lab to check for any bacterial infections in your vagina." Clary gulped. "Put your feet in the stirrups for me please?"

Clary scooted her tiny body down and waited for the whole thing to be over.

Before she knew it Dr. Moon said she was done and she asked, "I understand you need the morning after pill as well? It seems like you lost your virginity last night am I right?"

"Yes, Dr. Moon. My… friend is in the waiting room."

"It was nice of him to come with you," The doctor said and Clary smiled.

"Let me get you your emergency contraception. What do you plan on using in the future for contraception?"

"Condoms?" Clary said weakly. She didn't want to talk about this.

"Did your friend use a condom last night?"

"He did. But it broke."

"Always best to have a backup method of birth control before these things happen. How would you feel about going on the pill? Anything I give you today doesn't come back to your parents so you don't have to worry about that."

Clary breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, please that would be wonderful."

"It's still possible to get pregnant even with the morning after pill. If you've ovulated then the pill won't be much use. You should do a pregnancy test if your period is late." Dr. Moon listed off some instructions for taking the morning after pill and left Clary to get dressed.

* * *

Clary walked out of the clinic and noticed how chill Jace was being about all this. "Nothing really shakes you does it?"

"Try not to let shit get to me, no."

"She said I could still get pregnant if I've ovulated."

Jace grimaced. "I'd rather not know the particulars, Clary."

"Sorry." She said weakly.

* * *

What did you guys think? Excited? I am! Drop me a review and let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Oh dear, so I actually posted the fourth chapter last time. I've corrected it and this is the correct chapter order!

* * *

Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

Sylvia Plath

* * *

School that week was hectic, she had an art project to finish and there was another home game on Friday. On Wednesday night she didn't get home until almost 5 pm. Izzy had conducted a brutal practice and she was sore from being dropped by one of their new bases. Her shoulder was taped with bright pink sports wrap and she decided to drop a line in group chat the cheerleaders had with the football players.

[ C. Fray; (Group Chat) ] Is anyone down for a study session?

The house was silent. She didn't have to look but there was a note on her bedside table explaining that Luke was out on business for the rest of the week and Jocelyn was staying above her studio in Manhattan. Luke was a world famous rare book collector and he frequently took trips during the week.

[ I. Lightwood; ( Group Chat )] You're such a baby about your shoulder. It's only a minor sprain.

[ C. Fray; ( Group Chat )] Yeah you're such a great captain for letting your best flier get tossed around by the new base…

[ I. Lightwood; ( Group Chat )] Not nice.

[ J. Herondale; ( Group Chat )] I'm down for studying and possibly a couple drinks. I've got a test in Math on Friday.

[ C. Fray; (Group Chat) ] Aren't you taking that super hard calculus course?

[ J. Herondale; ( Group Chat )] Yep. We covered limit notation today and I nearly had an aneurysm.

[ A. Lightwood; ( Group Chat )] Sorry I missed this I just got done with my homework.

[ C. Fray; (Group Chat) ] We could study and pass the bottle around at my place?

[ I. Lightwood; ( Group Chat )] Damn that sounds good. Where are we going to get alcohol from through?

[ J. Herondale; ( Group Chat )] I have some left over from the party. Not a big deal.

[ I. Lightwood; ( Group Chat )] So that's it? Study and drinks at Clary's?

[ J. Herondale; ( Group Chat )] Sounds good be there in 20?

[ A. Lightwood; ( Group Chat )] I'll walk Izzy over and have a few drinks but I can't stay long.

[ I. Lightwood; ( Group Chat )] Sounds good.

* * *

10 minutes later Clary had just changed into a pretty sundress it was blue and had a pattern of green vines on the bottom edge. There was a knock at the door and Clary opened it.

Jace was there, holding his backpack full of school things. "Hey, you." He said smiling at her.

"Hey come on in, I was just about to order pizza!" Clary said enthusiastically and opening the door a little wider for him.

"What kind are you getting?" He asked as he stepped into the house and set his things down.

"I don't know what kind do you want?" Clary said as she fidgeted with the phone.

"I really like mushroom and olive but no one else would want that. Maybe pepperoni?" Jace said as he opened his backpack and took out a text book. "We're still studying right?"

"Mushroom and olive? That's so gross Jace." She said as she laughed. "Did you bring the alcohol? Yeah, I think so. Izzy has a test too but in English."

"Yep. I've got Svedka." Sure enough, he had a one-liter bottle of plain Svedka. She had been hoping for something fruity.

"You know if coach finds out you have a fake ID he's going to murder you sideways right?"

Jace just shook his head and smiled at her.

Clary went and got some shot glasses and pulled out some stools around the breakfast bar for them. "Should I text Alec and Izzy to see when they're going to be here? Have you talked to Kaelie?"

"Yeah, I did. I told her it was completely over between us and she was a bit pissed but I think she'll get over it… does this mean you're mine now?" Jace said thickly.

She could tell he wanted this. She had no idea what the deal was with Kaelie but if Jace had told her off then that was good enough for Clary.

Alec shouted from the front of the house just then. "Jesus Christ we knocked for like five minutes!" Alec said from the front.

"Sorry! Jace and I had to have a powwow." Clary called from the kitchen.

"So is that a yes?" Jace asked her.

She thought for a moment, what did Kaelie matter to her? "Yes, it is."

Izzy was with him and looking a little tired. Sometimes Clary thought Izzy didn't realize how hard she pushed them. It was all good because they looked hella because of Izzy's efforts. Sometimes Clary just wished her captain was a little easier on herself.

"Is that because you guys..." Alec wiggled his eyebrows and smirked. Clary knew instantly what he was implying.

"Iz! Did you fucking tell him?" Clary yelped and looked disdainfully down at her friend.

"Of course I didn't tell him!" Izzy snapped.

"Jace disappeared the night of the party pretty early and I _may_ have heard some noises coming from his bedroom. I saw him disappear with you and put two and two together." Alec said and smirked.

"Fuck's sake." Clary groaned.

"C'mon let's get going with the night." Izzy whined, "Alec has to be back by seven, he's grounded."

Clary grabbed her cell phone and dialed the pizza place down the road and put her hand over the receiver. "Pepperoni ok with everyone?"

"Hell yeah!" Alec said as he took a seat at the breakfast bar.

"Hi, can I have a 24 cut pizza?" Clary said into her cell phone. Jace pulled Alec into a headlock and rubbed the top of Alec's head with his fist. The boys started to rough house and Clary hung up.

"They'll be here in 30 minutes so in plenty of time for Alec."

"Let's drink!" Izzy said.

* * *

They were about a quarter way through the bottle and the pizza was nearly all gone. Two teenage boys could really burn through some food.

"We should play never have I ever!" Clary said. She'd had the least to drink out of all of them.

"Never have I ever is so boring," Alec whined. He had a flush to his cheeks that came from drinking and Jace was looking quite similar.

"Let the girls play what they want to Alec." Jace chided his friend.

"Fuck's sake," Alec whined.

"Ok let's do it," Izzy said.

"Who goes first?" Clary asked.

"I'll go first," Izzy said. Izzy looked around the room and found a waiting victim. "Uhmmm… Never have I ever… sucked off the football captain."

"Izzy!" Clary squealed.

"Drink!" Alec said, laughing.

Clary took the bottle and poured a shot for herself, belting it down as fast as possible and made a face as it went down.

"Jace has to go next right?" Clary asks.

"Yeah, you do," Izzy replies.

"Ok, never have I ever sucked off a dude," Jace said happily.

Alec, Izzy, and Clary all drank.

"Alec goes next."

"Never have I ever gotten fucked." There were gasps of astonishment around the room. Everyone thought Alec had fucked Magnus Bane, the local townie.

Izzy and Clary both drank.

"Never have I ever done drugs," Clary said.

Jace, Alec, and Izzy all drank. "Holy shit seriously?" Clary said. She was surprised Izzy had done anything she didn't know about.

"Yeah, I did coke the summer between sophomore and junior year."

Alec looked murderous and who could blame him? Clary would have been pissed if she found out her brother did drugs. Clary's could feel a strong buzz from the liquor. She wasn't completely drunk but she definitely wasn't sober. Alec looked at his watch and said, "I have to go it's almost nine. Mom's going to kill me and I should probably take Izzy with me."

"Aww c'mon Alec!" Izzy said.

"No, we should go before she flips out and starts scouring the neighborhood for us."

"Ok, I guess." Izzy sighed and as she gets up she swayed a little.

"Jace, you gonna head out?" Alec asked his friend and captain.

"No, I think I'm going to finish up the pizza really quick."

"Alright, you guys have a good night," Alec said as he hoisted Izzy over his shoulder and carried her from the house.

Clary was tired and very drunk. She thought she remembered five shots which weren't too bad but she would definitely be hungover the next morning. While Jace ate more pizza she drifted into her bedroom and flopped down on top of the covers.

She closed her eyes and when she opened them she was looking at Jace's golden eyes. "Hey." She slurred.

"Hey, are you ok?" Jace asked her.

"I'm… good?" She said, laughing giddily.

He sat on her bed and ran a hand through her hair. "You'll never know how beautiful you are to me."

"Mhmm." Clary hummed drunkenly. She put her hand on his thigh, "Are we like.. Facebook official?"

"Get your phone," Jace said happily.

She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and changed her relationship status to 'in a relationship with Jace Herondale', Jace approved her relationship request immediately.

"Is that better? Now everyone will know you're mine." Jace said.

"Yeah, it's perfect," Clary said happily. "Can I have a kiss?" Clary said quietly.

Jace pulled her into his lap and cupped her cheek. He placed a tender kiss on her lips and she kissed him back a little harder. She didn't want tender kisses right now, she wanted something fast and hard.

"Can we have a quickie?" Clary said as she pulled away from the kiss.

"Mmm... " Jace seemed to be considering it. "I really need to study for that test. Even if I do it a bit drunk."

Clary pouted. "Ok. Then I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

"Yep." He kissed her forehead and gathered his things including the leftover vodka and headed out.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: This chapter has not been looked over with grammarly! I apologize for any mistakes it kept crashing my browser when I was trying to edit!

* * *

power couple

 _noun_

a couple consisting of two people who are each influential or successful in their own right.

* * *

The next day

Clary walked into school wearing oversized sunglasses and carrying a large handbag. Her mother had come home from her apartment in Manhattan and had reamed her a new one for drinking but had woken up in time for school and her mother had made her breakfast all the same. It wasn't an awful hangover but just enough to make her feel like shit until noon and since it was easily only 7:45 she had a long haul to go.

She wandered through the halls and found her locker. Izzy had the locker next to hers so while Clary put on her lip gloss for the day Izzy opened her locker and hissed above the mass of teenagers "I'm fucking grounded."

Clary laughed. "And you think I'm not? Mom came home last night and tore me a new double wide asshole."

"Mom threatened to call the school and have me thrown off the squad!" Izzy growled.

This got Clary's attention. "She would never! You're better than even me!"

"Gee, thanks Clary. Dad talked her out of it but she's pissed at me so I have to eat, breathe and sleep, school, and cheer."

"Damn that sucks."

"No shit Sherlock."

"I have to stop by the art room before first period. Gotta jet."

* * *

Jace's test ended up being multiple choice and and not actual calculus problems. _Small miracles_ , he thought to himself. Calculus was his last class of the day and he was going to head for the lockers when he ran into Kaelie.

"Kaelie, what are you doing here?" He knew her schedule and she actually got done with classes at 7th period. What was she still doing in the school?

"Oh hello." She said silkily. "Mahopac's golden boy needs to look where he's going more."

"Shut up Kaelie. What do you want? And make it quick I have practice." Jace snapped at her.

"Temper, temper, Mr. Golden Boy. I just wanted to deliver a message to Mrs. Herondale-wannabe."

"Kaelie, do shut up you sound like a two-bit whore."

Kaelie made a face but he doubted that it mattered much to her. "Tell that pretty little girl that she's never going to hold onto you. You need a real woman and Clary Fray is _so_ far from that."

"She's more than you'll ever be Kaelie." Jace gritted out.

"Well," Kaelie said shrugging, "Let me know when you get bored."

Jace rolled his eyes and brushed forcefully past her to the locker rooms.

He changed into his jersey and pads quickly, his exchange with Kaelie had made him a bit late. "Hey man coach is looking for you!" Alec said from behind him.

"Fuck." Jace grumbled.

"Don't shoot the messenger!" Alec said from behind him.

Jace grabbed his helmet and tugged his jersey over his pads and hustled to the Coach's office. The Coach happened to be his father. He'd been lucky because Coach Herondale was a hard ass in every sense. If his father knew he had a party at the house when his dad wasn't home ( he'd been at Elaine Lewis's house, his dad's girlfriend ) there would be hell to pay which was why the boys were so important to him. They'd helped clean up the mess from last week's post-game party. Coach Herondale was, for once, not looking like he wanted to murder Jace sideways. "You did a good job at the last game, son."

"Thank you sir." It was always 'sir' when they were handling coach/player situations.

"The Tartans are nothing compared to the Great Dane's though and we've got to train double time."

"Yessir."

"There's going to be scouts from Cornell, Fordham and Columbia in the audience and you _know_ Fordham has the Biochemistry program you really want to get into. Cornell is an Ivy League school and I think it would be great if you went there. You've got to make a good impression so we're going to do some plays this Friday that show off your throwing arm."

"Sounds good sir." He was excited. Holy shit, Fordham was actually coming to he him play? And Cornell? He would be over the moon to play for the Rams or Big Red.

"So today we're going to do throwing drills. I'll see you on the field in five."

Jace turned and left the office. God, he knew he was ready for it but he wanted to train extra hard today just so he was on point for Friday's game.

* * *

Friday night rolled around alarmingly quickly. Tonight marked the end of Clary's grounding and it was the last game before the huge homecoming game ( _and_ the homecoming dance ). Clary was tying blue and gold ribbons into her hair. She lamented that it never looked as good as when Izzy did it for her but Izzy was still grounded so she would be partying alone tonight. "Fuck's sake why is my life like this." She grumbled at her reflection.

On top of her best friend being grounded she'd broken one of her acrylic nails and she was generally in a bad mood. She picked up her phone and texted Jace.

[ C. Fray ] Hope you're having a better day than me good luck at the game tonight.

[ J. Herondale ] Bad day? There's a party tonight at my place you're invited.

[ C. Fray ] Thanks. At this rate I might just stay home.

[ J. Herondale ] Cheer up! We're gonna dominate on the field. I know you always feel better after a good game.

Clary smiled. That was definitely true. She finished tying the ribbons into her hair and grabbed her hand bag. She was going to have to come back to the house before she headed out for the night which meant probably sneaking out her window again because both her mother and Luke were home from their various business trips. Clary pulled a hoodie over her cheer uniform and gathered her things.

On her way out the door she called "Bye mom, be back later!"

"Bye!"

She walked briskly to the school. Mahopac High School was only about a ten minute walk from her house. It was one of those neighborhoods where everything was close to everything else. You didn't really need a car unless you had to go into the city. Clary finished off her walk to the high school by jogging onto the track and found Izzy moping on the sideline.

"Hey Iz." Clary said. Izzy's face was obscured by her hands and Clary thought she could see tears dripping from her cheeks.

"This is such a nightmare. I've been invited to three after parties and I can't go to any of them!"

"I guess there _are_ downsides to being ridiculously popular."

Izzy sniffled slightly, confirming Clary's suspicions that she was crying. Clary peeled Izzy's hands away from her face revealing a mess of mascara. "C'mon you're going to cheer and the boys are going to demolish that team and on Sunday, when you're not grounded we're going to get Cold Stone and go shopping."

"But you hate shopping…!"

"I'll go for you Izzy." At this, Izzy's frown melted into a smile. Clary took out a makeup wipe and handed it to Izzy. She fished out her mascara and a compact mirror. "Fix yourself up. We have to cheer these boys to victory."

* * *

Clary inhaled. The scent of popcorn, nachos and cotton candy wafted through the air and she was in her zone finally. The stands were starting to fill and she'd already warmed up. They need to practice their victory stunt ( a full layout performed by Clary ) but otherwise all was well.

Izzy gathered them together and said, "Alright girls let's make it count." They all put their hands in the middle and cheered "Go Angels!"

When they dispersed Clary grabbed her pom-poms and shook them high in the air. Clary got a running start and did her victory stunt, perfectly. She was always a bit nervous about practicing victory stunts before games she felt like it was bad luck. All the girls assembled in front of the locker room and made the traditional tunnel for the boys to run through. The boys jogged out of the locker rooms and assembled for the coin toss. Clary looks on in interest. Jace calls tails just before the coin flies into the air. It lands and tails are facing up.

Clary is pleased and the kick off begins. Izzy crowds the girls together and gets the bases ready for a cupie. Clary is lifted into the air and fully extends her arms. The girls on the ground are doing back handsprings and everything is in perfect sync.

She's released back to the ground and after a somewhat messy start she believes the night is going to be just fine.

Izzy rallied them, "There's scouts in the audience so let's give them our all! Jace is about 5 yards from the end zone. You guys know what to do!"

Clary grabbed her pom poms and rustled them in the air. The squad shouted out, "The end zone is what we're looking for! / So come on Angels! / Take that ball and score!"

Jace passed the ball to Alec in the end zone and they scored. The crowd roared with cheers of "Herondale! Herondale!"

* * *

Two hours later the game is won and Coach Herondale had called Jace in from the field to his office. There was a surly looking man in a suit with a pin on his lapel with the Rams emblem. "Sit down both of you," Coach Herondale said. They sat and Jace bit his lip was this actually happening right now?

"Mr. Collins here is the head coach of Fordham's football team. Mr. Collins this is my son, Jace Herondale."

"Ah your son, coaches are always hardest on their own." Mr. Collins said.

Jace smiled nervously. "Did you enjoy the game?"

"Very much so. I saw the plays your team was running, very impressive for a player your age." Mr. Collins seemed to want to get straight to the point. He pulled out an unsealed envelope from inside his jacket pocket and handed it to Jace.

"That's a full ride scholarship to Fordham and a spot on the team as our starting quarterback." Mr. Collins said.

"Wow… uhm when do you need an answer?"

"The deal is open for three weeks. After that we'll have to find someone else for our quarterback, you know how these things are, very time sensitive. Take a day or two and think it over with your pops and we can reconvene in a week?"

"Yes, sir that sounds good to me." Jace said humbly.

"Alright, well I'm sure you want to go celebrate with your teammates, so I won't hold you up any longer. Have a good night Mr. Herondale."

"Thank you sir." Jace took the papers and walked out of the office. He wanted to jump in the air and scream and holler. This was it! He'd made it! He couldn't wait to tell Clary.

* * *

Clary was just collecting her things and getting ready to go home. The walk home is uneventful even if Izzy was walking with her because Izzy had gotten a case of the sniffles again.

"Promise me you'll have a shot for me tonight? God I hate my mother!" Izzy rages.

"Relax Iz, it probably won't be that much fun anyway."

"Yeah, because last weekend's party was such a bummer!" She said sarcastically.

"Ok, ok. I'll have a shot for you just," Clary paused. They were outside of her house and she kind of had to go. She felt like a terrible friend for abandoning Izzy like this. "Relax, eat some ice cream. Go home and try to make peace with your mom. And besides, Jace isn't hosting the party tonight. It's down by the river tonight."

"Ok, I guess." Izzy wrapped her arm around Clary and hugged her tight to her.

Clary hugged her back and then slipped into the house.

Clary went inside and silently slipped into her room hoping to avoid attracting attention. She figured she could leave the ribbons in her hair, it looked pretty anyway. She pulled out one of her own dresses for this weekend (definitely more subdued than the dress from the previous weekend) and pulled it on. She touched up her make up and pulled on the scuffed heels she'd decided not to return to her mother's closet.

Just as she was about to climb out her window she saw car lights pulling into the driveway. Who could that be? She wasn't expecting anyone and she didn't think there was anyone coming to pick her up… unless Jace had decided to come get her?

Her room was just down the hall from the door so she decided to wait to see who was before she slipped into the night. She heard the front door open and low and behold….

"Hey Jonathan!" Jocelyn called out. Clary could hear Jonathan saying hello to his mother and heard a suitcase roll into the house. Should she stick around? Her brother would be pissed if she snuck out before saying hello to him.

"Where's Clary?" She heard her brother say in the hallway.

"I'm in here!" Clary called from her room. A moment or two later her brother was knocking on her door. "Come in Jon."

He opened the door and went to hug her but stopped midway. "What are you wearing sis?"

She flushed red. "A dress, dumbass, does it look that bad on me?"

"No! No! You look fine, but I don't think you're going to leave the house looking like that. Luke will tweak."

"I was planning on sneaking out the window."

"Going to a party little sis? You're taking after me now." He said proudly.

"I know but my boyfriend is hosting a party down by the river and I need to be there. If I sneak out the window will you come with me? You're still friends with the guys from the Mahopac team right?"

"Yeah, I am, except for the captain of course."

"What do you mean? You're not friends with Jace?"

"Please don't tell me that's whose house you were thinking of going to?"

"Yeah, it kind of was." Clary said, disappointed that her brother and Jace weren't friends.

"He's a complete player! You're definitely not going to his house!"

"He is not a player! We're facebook official! " Clary snapped at her brother, sincerely annoyed.

"Really? Show me." Jonathan said. Clary got out her phone and showed him her relationship status on Facebook.

Jonathan heaved a sigh. "You know that's not the only reason you shouldn't be seeing him right? He's got a nasty prescription pill habit." Jonathan seemed to be scrabbling for anything to make his sister hate Jace.

"No he doesn't! Don't you think I would notice if he was always high?" Clary snapped at her brother. "Just - shut up before mom hears you! I'm going to go. I don't really care if you don't want me to. I need to get out of the house and if we stand here for much longer mom is going to know I'm plotting something."

"Fuck's sake Clary!" But she'd already thrust open the window and was halfway out of it.

"Clarissa!" Jonathan hissed.

"Bye bro!" She said as she slipped out the window. Luckily, Clary had enough dirt on Jonathan that she knew he wouldn't tell on her. To her surprise he doesn't follow her though.

The walk there was a bit lonely. Going to the river at night usually meant you were going to party and cops wouldn't hesitate to stop you and ask for ID. She should have had Jace pick her up but she hadn't thought to ask and he'd probably been busy.

[ J. Herondale ] Whereeee are youuuuu?

[ C. Fray ] Almost there. I can see the bonfire.

She walked a little faster and ended up jogging until she saw some of her classmates. Aline was here with her older cousin Sebastian. She could see Jace holding court in front of the bon fire. He had a beer in his hand and she wanted to kiss him so badly. Her body ached for him.

"Hey baby." Jace said, turning as some of the football team pointed out her arrival.

"Ayyee." She said. "Can I have a beer?" She couldn't wait another second to kiss him. She steered his head in her direction and kissed him lightly.

"Mmm." Jace hummed into the kiss. "Guess what?"

"What?" Clary asked

"I got into Fordham! I'm going to play for the Rams!" Jace all but shouted.

Clary stared at him wild eyed. "Are you serious?!"

"Dead serious baby" Jace said.

"That's amazing!" Clary said attack hugging him and making him spill his beer.

He laughed, a deep, rich sound. "I want to go back to my house." He whispered in her ear when still had her arms and legs wrapped around him like a very small panda.

"What?" She said sliding off him.

"Yeah, I want to…" But everyone was looking at them and Jace looked like he was getting a case of nerves. "C'mon. Bring your beer with you."

Jace chugged the rest of his beer and they headed for his car. "You're a bad boy." Clary said, giggling as they walked away from the rest of the team. "Why did you want me to meet you here if we're just going back to your house?"

"Well I wasn't ready for you to meet the parents and I know Luke and Jocelyn would be home so I figured it was best if we met up here."

"Good point. My brother is in town too and apparently he hates you."

"He doesn't hate me - I mean we've had some disagreements about team shit but isn't he playing with Fordham this year?"

"Yeah why?"

"Is he their starting quarterback?" Jace said nervously as he unlocked the car and climbed in.

"I think so…" It dawned on Clary that there could be a serious problem here. "Are you saying that if you accept Fordham's offer that you would replace my brother on the team?" She said nervously.

"Uh, yeah I think that's what is happening." Jace said, his heart sinking. This definitely put a blanket on the mood of the night.

"I'll talk to Jon. You know he's in their engineering program so he could probably stay on with a scholarship for his grades. I don't want you to give this opportunity up for my stupid brother." Clary grumbled. "Don't look at me like that either! He's not worth ruining tonight!" She said stubbornly. "Take me to your house, we're going to fuck like rabbits and drink like Anheuser-Busch is going out of business because my boyfriend got a goddamn scholarship!"

Jace rolled his eyes. This was the Clary he cherished. He felt a bit bad about pushing someone off the team at Fordham but getting a full scholarship at his reach school was more than he could ask for so he was prepared to party it up.

"Alright baby girl," He said as he got the car in gear. They backed out of his spot by the river. The drive back to Jace's house was filled with their favorite songs. They pulled onto Jace's street and Jace turned down his iPod. "My dad freaks out if I pull up to the house with the stereo blasting."

"How exactly am I getting in?" Clary said. She hadn't thought about Jace's dad being home. He was home so rarely that it hadn't occurred to her that it might be a problem.

"We're going in the back." Jace pulled into his driveway and put the car in park. "Don't slam your door, I only want him to hear one car door closing."

"On three?" They both held their door and and when Jace counted down from 3 they shut their doors at the same time.

They crept to the back of the house. Jace opened the back door of the house and crept inside. They spotted Jace's dad, Coach Herondale, sound asleep on the couch with the TV blasting. She wondered how anyone could sleep with that much noise! But it made their job much easier since even the stairs creaking didn't hold a candle to the noise the TV was making.

They were upstairs and in Jace's room with the door locked in mere minutes. It felt very good to be alone with Jace. She hadn't really noticed much about Jace's room the last time she was here, so she took a second to take it all in now. There was a dresser opposite the bed, on top of which stood a massive TV. The walls were a kind of baby blue, as if this had been his room his whole life and he'd never bothered to repaint since he was a baby. There was a desk, a mini fridge and plenty of floor space. In the corner there was a table set up for beer pong. It was a huge room. He appeared to have one of the largest bedrooms she'd ever seen. It was nothing like her tiny room at her house.

"So what do you want to do now that we're alone?"Jace asked Clary.

"Well we could netflix and chill or play beer pong?"

"How about play a couple rounds of beer pong then netflix and chill?" Jace offered.

"Sounds good, 10 rack ok?"

"Yeah that's fine."

They started racking up cups and pouring beer. Clary was usually very good in beer pong so the last time she'd played with him hadn't really been fair.

"Ladies first." Jace said as he finished pouring the beer.

"Thanks babe." Clary said smirking. She aimed, pulled back her arm and the ball bounced from Jace's front cup to his second and landed in the beer with a 'plunk'.

"Aww so close yet so far!" Jace said, as he picked the ball out of his cup and drank. He made a face. "This beer is awful," He looked at the cans. "Keystone Light. What was I thinking?"

"Apparently you weren't. Do you have a funnel?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "You know what a beer funnel is?"

"Of course I do! Jon _is_ my brother after all. The party master extraordinaire."

Jace rolled his eyes. "I should've known."

Clary rolled her eyes. "Seriously if you don't want to sip the beer you can chug it or we could funnel it."

"I'll chug it." Jace said shaking his head.

She laughed. "I'm not as innocent as I appear." She said softly, in a very innocent tone of voice.

"Riiiight." Jace said with a panty-dropping smirk.

* * *

Somehow? They had ended on the bed after Clary funneled all the beer she'd saved up from their pong game. She was a bit tipsy, especially after guzzling all that beer. Jace was kissing her as if he'd never kiss anyone ever again. "Are you on birth control yet?"

"I haven't filled the prescription." Clary murmured back.

"Damn, I guess we're risking it with a rubber again."

"It'll be fine." Clary said softly. She loved him like this, a little drunk, very much making heart eyes at her and the _feel_ of his soft kisses on her neck.

"Clary - you make me feel things I've never felt."

"Never? You've never looked someone in the eye and realized they hold the keys to your heart?"

"Never."

She sighed, they were close, she was straddling his lap on the bed. Something about him just made her heart beat out of her chest. She wanted him so much, but it wasn't just his dick that she wanted, she wanted _all_ of him. She wanted to belong to him and she wanted him to belong to her. There was a special feeling in her chest, a kind of contented humming coursing through her. "I want to have sex." Clary said, but she paused and added, "but slow. I want to make love."

"Ok. I can handle that." He flipped them on their bed and began undressing them. First to go was her dress, it was a simple flowing block dress. It looked good on her but even better on his floor.

She tugged his t-shirt over his head. The glow of his lamps cast an ethereal glow around his head, like a halo. His golden eyes were looking at her with wonder and amazement as if she was the center of his world. He stood up and took off his pants. He got back on the bed, covering her body with his. Her legs curled around his hips. He reached around her and removed her bra, letting her small tits spring free. He made her feel _so good_ , like a woman that had needs, needs that were being met. He leaned down and rolled his tongue over one of her hard nipples. She sighed heavily, if felt so good. "Do you want me to suck you off?" She asked him.

"Shh no, let me make you feel good." She flushed even more than she already was. Jace pulled off her panties and rubbed circles on her clit, making her back arch. He kept a hand on one of her tits and squeezed and rolled her nipple between her thumb and forefinger. It was tantalizing and she wanted more but she didn't want to rush him.

Jace slipped a finger inside her and she sucked in a breath. It felt so good. Jace angled his fingers so they were hitting a spot just inside her that felt wonderful. "What is that?" Clary said, breath coming in short pants.

"Your g-spot." Jace said with a wicked smirk.

"Goddamn." Clary swore.

He kept going, making sure she was plenty wet. He used his thumb to rub circles into her clit while he angled his fingers to her g-spot. Fuck, it felt so good. "Please, make love with me now. I'm ready." Clary said, cheeks flushed a pretty shade of pink and breath coming in spurts as Jace made her nearly come undone on his fingers.

Jace grinned, pulled his fingers out of her pussy and licked them. He went to his pants on the floor and pulled out a Trojan condom from the pocket. "This shouldn't break on us."

"Please, Jace I just need you inside of me." Clary whimpered. The foil of the condom wrapper was torn and he rolled it onto his cock. He perched himself at the front of Clary's entrance and slid, slowly, into her. Clary was overwhelmed with the same feeling she had been two weeks ago, a feeling of immense tightness. She'd never seen anyone else's cock but she had a feeling Jace was well endowed. He started his strokes slow and torturous. He wrapped her legs around his waist and made his strokes sure and strong. They looked each other in the eyes. Clary saw his pupils were blown wide and she assumed hers were much the same. Jace placed gentle kisses on her neck and drove into her deeper. She whimpered. It felt good, _so good_ but still tight. Jace kissed her on the lips softly and whispered in her ear. "Can I go faster?"

She grinned and whispered back, "Yes, please."

Jace pulled out almost all the way and surged back into her pussy, nearly bottoming out on her cervix. "Oh my god, that's good." There was a bit of a sting when he went that deep oh _goodness_ did it feel good. They fucked like that for all of five minutes before Clary was on the brink of an orgasm. The coil of pleasure low in her belly was threatening to snap, she just needed a bit of encouragement. "Harder!" She whined.

He took her hips in his hands and banged out a staccato pace of strokes into her pussy. "Fuck I'm close." Jace ground out.

Clary clamped down her legs on Jace's waist and held him close. She let her control go and flew free, soaring high. White stars burst behind her eyes and she blacked out for a second. Jace spilled into her and held her tight. He pressed a kiss to her lips and pulled out.

Clary was completely spent. She curled up in his bed and pulled the covers over her. Jace was back from disposing of the condom. "How're you feeling?"

"Like I need a nap, I'm all sexed up." Clary said.

"It's midnight, let's go to bed." Jace crawled into bed and held Clary close to him.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: This chapter contains drug use! We're finally getting to the crux of the story! Also, lemons ahead!

* * *

"Don't be too quick to draw conclusions from what happens to you; simply let it happen. Otherwise it will be too easy for you to look with blame at your past, which naturally has a share with everything that now meets you."

― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

* * *

Monday came swiftly and harshly as her alarm rang at 6am. It took her fifteen minutes just to get out of bed. She looked at the calendar above her bed. Today she was supposed to get her period. How wonderful. She let out a testy sigh and headed to the shower.

It was nearly 7:30 before she left and she was running late. Today was the first day Izzy wasn't grounded in 5 days so she hoped Izzy would be up to more than just cheer practice. She had her backpack, stuffed with books and her spare bag filled with her stuff for cheer.

Her phone buzzed just as she entered school.

[ J. Morgenstern ] Hey.

[ ] Hi?

[ J. Morgenstern ] I never got to see much of you this weekend you were over at Jace Herondale's house the whole time.

[ C. Fray ] And? Is that a problem, overprotective brother bear?

[ J. Morgenstern ] I don't like him.

[ C. Fray ] Actually! We need to talk about him. He got a spot on Fordham's football team.

Damn. Why did he have to do this? She walked into someone as she was typing her reply and dropped her phone. "Damnit I'm sorry -"

"It's ok Clare-bear." Jace said.

"Thanks. Sorry, didn't mean to slam into you like that." Clary said.

"You can slam into me any time you want to." He said with a wink. "Besides you only weigh 100 pounds soaking wet, I don't think it's going to hurt me." She blushed. Damn him. Just like that she went from being annoyed with her brother to extremely pleased with her boyfriend.

"Will I see you at lunch?" He asked.

"Of course. Where are you going now?"

"Chemistry, I _hate_ chemistry so maybe you could walk with me and sweeten up the next hour for me?" Jace said sweetly.

"Ok, babe." Clary said happily.

* * *

By the time cheer practice ended (they worked on strength training and stunts) she felt sore enough that she didn't feel bad asking Jace for a ride home even if it was only a ten minute walk.

She put her stuff in the back seat and climbed in the front. Damn she was sore. She noted she didn't have any of the usual cramping on the days when she got her period. She groaned, she would probably get woken up at ass o'clock with period cramps.

"What's wrong?" Jace asked as she climbed in the front.

"Nothing, girl shit." Clary said.

"Sorry I asked." Jace said, laughing lightly. "Are you hungry? I'm starving."

"Yeah I could go for some cheat food."

"Cheat food?"

"Junk food. My poison of choice is usually McDonald's."

"Alright, McDonald's it is." Jace put the car in gear and pulled out of the school parking lot. There was traffic on their way across town because it was getting late, nearly rush hour.

Clary's phone rang, she looked at the caller ID.

 _ **[[ Incoming call: Jonathan Morgenstern ]]**_

"Damn it!" Clary huffs. Jace looks over and sees the caller ID.

"It's your brother… Aren't you going to answer it? Or are you two still fighting?" Jace asked.

"We're fighting, I guess. He's being a total jackass about you. And I have to tell him about you getting the scholarship still." She's so done with this bullshit.

They pull into the McDonald's parking lot after a twenty minute drive from the school and Clary orders chicken McNuggets with a coke and honey mustard sauce. Her mouth is watering she's so hungry. No doubt her mother will be pissed at her for having junk food but that hardly matters right now.

"I don't understand what Jonathan has against you. It's so frustrating because believe it or not I like my brother… most of the time when he's not being a dick to you." Clary huffed.

"I think it's that I always bested him on the field. Even though we were on the same team he was always barely holding onto his position as captain. Several times coach threatened to replace him with me. Well, that would have been the ultimate embarrassment for Jon and now I'm about to steal his position on Fordham's team."

Clary sighed, boys… She would have to text her brother later.

* * *

Clary was just getting ready for bed. She'd made provisions for if she got her period in the night. She texted Jonathan.

[ C. Fray ] Hey I'm sorry I missed your call.

[ J. Morgenstern ] Did you really miss my call or were you ignoring me?

[ C. Fray ] *shrug emoji*

[ J. Morgenstern ] I thought so. What's this about him having a spot on my school's football team?

[ C. Fray ] Well he got a scholarship to play as the starting quarterback with the Fordham Rams?

[ J. Morgenstern ] … I'm? The ? Starting? Quarterback? For the Fordham Rams?

[ C. Fray ] He would replace you.

She cringed as she typed and cringed even harder as she hit send. His reply was instant.

[ J. Morgenstern ] Call me, now.

She thought about it for a minute. She could shut her phone off and ignore him or she could address the problem head on.

 _ **[ Outgoing call: J. Morgenstern ]**_

"Hello little sister." Jonathan said bitingly.

"Hi bro. Look, I wanted to talk to you about it."

"What is there to talk about?" Jonathan snapped.

"Maybe the fact that Jace is going to the same school as you to play football as starting quarterback of the team that you currently lead."

"Oh, so you do care"

"Of course I care. You're my brother but this is happening regardless of what I think. Could you possibly get a scholarship for your grades and still be able to stay at Fordham?"

"Of course I could, but I'm not going to school to study engineering I'm going to school to try to get into the NFL. I need to be seen by the right people."

"You could look into transferring schools," Clary offered.

"I could, but I probably wouldn't get as good of a scholarship as I've got now."

"Why, exactly, do you need a scholarship? It's not like Mom and Luke are broke."

"Clarissa," He sighed into the phone and she imagined him rubbing his temple like sometimes did when he was talking to her. "Starting Quarterback is a big deal to me. And since I'm a Sophomore, I may not even get a starting spot at another school, no matter how good I am."

She knew the words he wanted to say. "Also, staying close to New York is important to me too." Clary understood he felt a responsibility to take care of her. Despite Luke being there, he'd tried to be her rock since their biological dad died.

"I don't need my big brother to look after me anymore Jon. I'm practically an adult."

"Apparently you do. Do you know what kind of things your boyfriend gets up to?"

"Of course I do I'm with him all the time. Stop playing games. Is this about you being upset about football or you just not liking the fact that I'm with Jace because me being with him is not changing and he's worked really hard to get where he's at."

"And I haven't? You think he deserves it more than I do?" Clary winced, realizing that maybe she hadn't chosen the best words but really he was just being ridiculous.

"Jon, that's not what I meant and you know it. I'm trying to be supportive here but I'm having a hard time doing that when all you want to do is fight about Jace."

"I guess it must be pretty tough not knowing everything about your boyfriend, huh? Angel boy seems to get everything he wants because everyone sees him as something he's not. It's bullshit. And I'm not gonna let you be another person who gets the wool pulled over their eyes."

"First of all, don't call him Angel boy and second, I don't have any clue what you're talking about. I seriously thought we were talking about football." Jon was quiet on the other line as if he was contemplating following through on his promise. She was growing weary of the conversation that had somehow, once again, turned into an attack on her boyfriend.

"Whatever it is, just say it Jonathan. It's almost eleven and I need to be up at six." Jon sighed before speaking.

"Let's just say your Golden boy hasn't always been so golden. He went through a stint in his Sophomore year where he was popping pills left and right."

"His mother died that year, Jonathan. Why are you berating him for a few bad decisions?"

"Yeah, well when Valentine died I didn't fall to pieces," Jonathan snapped.

"Yes! You Did!" She half shouted into her phone. "You totally freaked out and hit Luke when all he tried to do was pass on his condolences and show you he cared."

"Whatever. He still has his teeth doesn't he? Jonathan muttered something that sounded a bit like 'what a shame' under his breath.

"Jon, I'm done. I know this is a shitty situation for you and I'm sorry but you can't change reality. I'm here for you in any way I can be but I'm not going to listen to you bash my boyfriend just for the hell of it. Do what you can to move forward in a way that's best for you whether that involves another school or whatever. No more arguing about it tonight. I'm going to bed." Jon sounded like he wanted to interrupt but I was just too tired to deal with his Jace issues.

"Love you. Goodnight," I rushed out before quickly ending the call.

* * *

When she woke up the next morning there was nothing. No cramping, and definitely no bleeding. She sighed and walked in the dark to her bathroom to shower. While she was in the shower she noticed her breasts were kind of? Sore… She didn't have much in the way of tits, modest B cups was all but Jace made her feel good about her body. With that thought she soothed the thought of anything amiss from her mind and finished her shower.

School that day was a myriad of tests. She had three tests in one day, it was about half way through the first quarter of the the year so unit tests were plaguing her. She had a drawing she had to hand in for art and a test in Chemistry and English.

She met up with Jace after lunch (he'd had a group project in calculus and had to meet with his group members) he kissed her on the lips softly. "How's your day going?" He asked her.

"Alright. I finished my art project and kind of winged it on my chemistry test. I had a test in English too, my teacher reamed me out for not having a number two pencil." She wasn't in the best mood but she was ready for cheer practice and only had 3 periods left in the day.

"What do you have next?" Jace asked happily, he seemed to be in a very good mood.

"American History with that cool teacher? Mr. Velasquez?"

"Oh yeah, I had him last year." Jace said, remembering. "You know the homecoming dance?" Jace said slowly, "It's next Friday and…"

She cut him off, "You wanted to know if I'd go with you? What kind of a question is that? Of course I'll go!" She hugged him and the bell went off.

"Gotta jet!" She wasn't far from her classroom but Jace's was on the other side of the west wing.

* * *

[ J. Herondale ] Hey man.

[ S. Verlac ] Hey my dude.

[ J. Herondale ] What kind of deal can you offer me on 30 oxys?

[ S. Verlac ] That's a lot of oxy my friend. Are you sure you don't want tickets? 10$ for a ticket. 100$ for a bundle. I've got widow maker right now. Good shit.

[ J. Herondale ] No thanks.

[ S. Verlac ] Ok, I could do $280 on 30 pills.

[ J. Herondale ] That's bullshit.

[ S. Verlac ] Best offer you're going to get in Brooklyn.

[ J. Herondale ] See you in a few.

[ S. Verlac ] See you.

Jace locked his phone. He shouldn't. He really shouldn't. Something was inexplicably drawing him toward Sebastian though after 2 years of half assed recovery. Maybe Jonathan was right, he was a bad kid. The first problem was that he'd been keeping in touch with his dealer through it all. He knew he shouldn't, he knew it could jeopardize his scholarship, something he wanted more than anything. Something was so alluring about the idea of getting high though. His mouth watered when he thought of the bliss the pills could offer.

He jogged from the locker rooms to the Audi, duffle bag in tow. He got in a drove to Sebastian's. Sebastian's house was in a particularly seedy part of town and Jace could only imagine what his father would say if he could see him here. Jace pulled into the small parking lot behind Sebastian's apartment and texted Sebastian.

[ J. Herondale ] Here.

A minute later Sebastian came out of the apartment complex. Sebastian had a very typical drug dealer like persona. He was wearing a shirt that said "Hustle Trees."

"Aye Man!" Sebastian said as he climbed into the passenger seat.

"Hey got the goods?"

"You bet." Sebastian handed over the goods and Jace gave him a stack of twenties. Sebastian quickly counted out the 14 twenties and smirked. "How's the season going?"

"Good, we're undefeated, but we're only two games in."

"Good luck man." Sebastian said, quickly giving Jace daps and exiting the car.

The good thing about Sebastian was that he hated small talk so Jace didn't have to deal with making pointless conversation. Jace put the car in drive and drove off into traffic.

* * *

Jace got home late, traffic was awful. He'd popped a pill on the way home and could feel some of the blissful buzz from it. It was like everything was softer and quieter. He marched up the stairs to his room and set all his things down. He was exhausted from sprinting drills. His phone went off.

[ C. Fray ] Hey babe how was practice?

[ J. Herondale ] Good, I'm exhausted. Want to come over?

[ C. Fray ] Yeah! I'll be over in a sec, I'm just finishing a sketch!

[ J. Herondale ] Ok. See you soon

He put his phone to the side. He was lying on his bed. He'd missed these pills. Goddamn it. He needed to keep his shit straight. Fordham would never want him for a starting quarterback if they found out about this bullshit. He was determined to not let whatever kind of habit this was get in the way of his game though.

He didn't realize it but he was drifting in and out of sleep. Damn these pills were strong! Clary would murder him in his bed if she found out.

It wasn't long before he heard the sound of the front doorbell going off. He got up slowly and shook off the high a little bit. He went downstairs, being sure not to stumble on any of the stairs. He opened the door and smiled at Clary. "Hey you." He hugged her tightly.

"Hey, what did coach have you do that was so exhausting?" Clary said interestedly.

"Sprinting drills."

"Ouch. Yeah you could probably use a good night's sleep after that."

"C'mon in babe. You want to hang out downstairs? Dad won't be home for ages."

"Do you have a laptop?" She asked him.

"Yep, why?"

"I just wanted to look at possibly getting you a suit for Friday night's dance?"

"I have a suit."

"Can I see it?" Clary said casually.

"Yeah sure. It needs to be dry cleaned though." He led her upstairs

* * *

After an hour of looking through Jace's ties she found one she liked. Something seemed off about Jace, not just that he was tired from practice. He was very sleepy it seemed and his attention was constantly drifting. She'd picked out a red and black tie with a pattern of little diamonds on it. She had a red dress she could steal from her mother's closet. They were chattering softly, holding hands on his bed when Jace's phone went off, it was Jace's dad.

Jace texted back and forth with his dad for a minute and then Clary asked, "What's your dad want?"

"Nothing he's just saying he's staying at his girlfriend's house for the next couple days. You want to stay tonight?"

"It's a school night babe. I don't want to make my mom freak out."

"Aww, c'mon."

"I have to go home tonight." Clary said, annoyed. She wanted to stay with him and get all sexed up but her mom was already not pleased with her.

Jace thought for a minute. "Why don't you tell your mom that you're at Izzy's house and you can have Alec pose as Mr. Lightwood?"

She sighed. This was a lot of trouble for one night. "I guess… I don't like calling in favors from Alec he's not my biggest fan."

"Oh don't worry about that, that's just Alec being his grumpy old self."

"I want him to like me! He's your best friend." She said pouting.

"Alright well I'll talk to him when I set up him calling your mom."

"Thanks babe." Clary brushed a kiss to Jace's temple.

* * *

An hour later they were all set and Alec had stated very clearly that he approved of Clary as a girlfriend (probably after being harangued by Jace) and Alec said he'd make sure Jocelyn was convinced he was Mr. Lightwood.

They settled in for the night and watched TV and had some dinner. Again, it seemed like Jace's attention was drifting and that he was preoccupied with something when Clary brought it up.

"Is something bothering you Jace?" She finally asked.

"No, why?" He said, perking up slightly.

"Well you just haven't really been paying much attention to me tonight." She didn't want to sound like an attention whore but usually when they were alone together he was engaged with her all the time. He just looked very sleepy right now. "Do you need to go to bed?"

"No. We've been together the whole night." He said to Clary. Indeed, they had been but it seemed strange that he was more engaged with the TV than he was with her.

"Are you ok?" Clary asked him.

"I'm fine," he said.

She kissed him. "I'm exhausted let's go to bed."

* * *

She peeled off her clothes and they both climbed into bed naked. Besides the night she'd stayed at Jace's house and lost her virginity she'd never slept in someone else's bed and when she wasn't drunk and completely passed out it was a bit more awkward. She usually slept with an old t-shirt and cheer shorts (or if it was hot out she would forgo the sleep shorts) but Jace slept entirely naked. She didn't ask, but she assumed she wanted her to do the same thing. She climbed into bed with him and he smirked at her. "You wanna?" They were both covered entirely by blankets but Clary scooched a little closer to him.

"Yeah, do you have a rubber?"

"Yep." He shuffled around and the shiny foil of a condom wrapper glinted in the moonlight.

"C'mere, lemme suck you off." Clary said eagerly.

"No, I want to eat your pussy." Jace said thoughtfully.

"I'm not going to say no to that." Clary said, as she slipped off her thong and spread her legs.

Jace slipped between the sheets and between her legs. Having sex stone cold sober was a bit awkward for her. Intimacy was trickier than she thought it was.

He slipped a finger inside her and applied the flat of his tongue to her entrance. She whined filthily. Everything he did made her want more. He lapped at her, fingering her with just one finger and lapping up the juices. How did he wind her up like this? He had barely been touching her for one minute! She arched her back slightly, she wanted to be closer to him. She wanted to suck him off still. She loved giving head and feeling him cum in her mouth. He pressed another finger into her and angled both fingers toward the roof of her pussy. He hit the tiny spot inside her that felt _so_ good. She was always amazed by him when they fucked but his foreplay game was amazing.

"Jace please," She whined. She wanted him to fuck her, hard.

"Your wish is my command." He said. She felt his fingers pull out of her and she whimpered at the lack of contact. Clary heard the foil wrapper get crumpled up and then Jace stuck his head out of the covers. Their eyes met briefly. His pupils were barely pinpoint. It was very dark in the room so that struck her as odd. That thought was cut off though by Jace slipping inside her. She kissed him. His lips were soft and plush. He as waiting for her to give him permission to move. "Go ahead" She said. It didn't really sting anymore it just made her feel incredibly full.

He thrust into her all the way and she whined his name. She wrapped her legs around him and dug her heels into his muscular thighs. God, she marveled as he thrust in and out of her rapidly, he was built like a fucking adonis. His chest and stomach were are hard lines and planes of smooth skin. She pressed her fingers to his chest and started kissing his neck. Kisses turned into bites and she realized she was leaving marks. They'd been going strong for fifteen minutes when the tension in her lower belly started to threaten to snap. "Jace, I'm going to cum."

"Cum for me. I wanna feel it when you cum." Jace said breathily.

Jace pushed into her one, two, three, more times and she whined. "I'm cuming!" All consuming pleasure swallowed her whole and she arched into him, while he growled his delight. She made sure to clench her muscles down on him so he felt it when she came.

But Jace hadn't come yet. He was still pounding her out with no sign of his strokes becoming uneven. She hung on for a second orgasm which was smaller than the first but she wanted him to cum. "Babe are you close."

"No, dammit." Jace said under his breath.

"What?" Clary asked. She didn't know how much talking was ok during sex but she was sure it was supposed to kept to a minimum.

"I can't cum." Jace said forlornly.

"Oh." That happened sometimes right? She didn't know these things and she certainly wasn't experienced to know what was happening right now.

"You're happy though? You got off?"

"Yeah," She said as he started to slow down.

"I'm sorry babe," He said as he pulled out of her. She looked at the clock, they'd been fucking for over 40 minutes. She felt vaguely sore from the thorough pounding he'd given her.

"No don't worry about it." Clary said. Wasn't he a bit _young_ to be having problems with Jace junior? "Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm fine, Clary." Jace said.

"Alright, goodnight then."

"Goodnight honey."

* * *

Tickets - a single bag of heroin.

Bundle - 10 bags of heroin.

Widow maker- a type of heroin, known for being so strong it literally kills people.

What happened to Jace when he tried to sex up Clary is colloquially known as dope dick.

 **dope dick** : When you are horny, but it is nearly impossible to ejaculate due to opiate depressants.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Approximately 4 weeks have passed since the events of the first chapter, which makes Clary six weeks pregnant, she is 2 weeks late for her period.

* * *

Jace was just getting his stuff to head to the high school for the homecoming game. He grabbed his duffle bag with all his shit in it and grabbed his keys. He put his stuff in the trunk and hopped in the driver's seat. What he didn't see was the person inside the car waiting for him.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" Jace screamed.

"Shut up it's just me," Kaelie said.

"Fucking hell how'd you get in here?" Jace said, recovering slightly.

"You left your car unlocked."

"That doesn't mean you can just hop inside, Kaelie!" He said viciously.

"Well I needed to talk to you and I needed little miss goody two shoes to not see us."

"What do you want?"

"The Great Danes are going to try to take you out tonight. I can't tell you how I know but they're going to clip you and try to take out your knees."

"And how do you know about this?"

"Let's just say I know a guy."

"Would this guy be Jonathan Morgenstern?"

"I can't tell you anything but watch your legs tonight."

"Get out of my car Kaelie!" He raged at her.

"Going!" Kaelie said. She popped out of his car and he turned the key in the ignition.

He pulled out of the drive and onto his street. He turned on the music and started thinking. TI's King album was playing through the speakers. His iPod was on shuffle and he turned it up. He needed to psych himself up for this.

 _I'm throwed off slightly bro_

 _Don't wanna fight me bro_

 _I'm fast as lightning bro ya better use ya Nike's bro_

 _Know you don't like me cause_

 _Yo bitch most likely does_

 _She see me on them dubs_

 _In front of every club_

Did someone on the Great Dane's team really want to injure him? No, it had to be Jonathan Morgenstern. He'd probably paid one of the Dane's to hurt him. He pushed the thought of injury from his mind and focused on driving.

* * *

Jace grabbed his iPod and went out to the grassy patch outside the locker rooms. He put on the same song he always listened to when he was trying to psych himself up and find mental clarity before a game. He had his eyes closed and was tunelessly humming the words to The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. Someone tapped him hard on the shoulder and he let out a low growl all his teammates knew he wasn't to be disturbed when he was out here.

He turned to see Jonathan Morgenstern's ugly mug staring back at him. "Jonathan."

"Angel boy."

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to deliver a message. I wanted you to know that considering that deal is grounds for me to wage a kind of… war… against you. I've got lots of friends that will try to do right by me if I call in favors. I like favors that sound like 'torn ACL' or 'dislocated shoulder'. You get me?"

"Clary would murder you in your bed if you tried anything."

"I'm not trying anything." Jon held up his hands. "My fingers have no plans to touch a single hair on your golden head."

Jace let out a low growl. "We both know I deserve the spot on the team!"

"There's no _way_ I'm letting a scumbag like you date my sister _and_ take my spot on the team."

Jace sighed and kicked the grass lightly with his cleats. "Do you really want to do this? Is that what tonight is? You're trying to send me some kind of message? I bet you paid all of the Dane's linemen didn't you? They're going to dog pile me and pull all kinds of fouls tonight!"

"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

From inside Jace could hear Coach Herondale calling the players out to run onto the field. "You're crazy." He grabbed his iPod and his helmet and jogged inside.

He met Alec on his way in. Alec slapped Jace's shoulder hard and smirked at him. "Ready for a good game?"

"Oh, you have no idea," Jace said darkly.

* * *

The ball was hiked to Jace and it went exactly as planned Jace watched as Alec, their running back, did a hook. Alec ran a few steps upfield before stopping and facing Jace. Jace tossed the ball as fast as possible to Alec, and Alec ran like lightning with the ball. They gained 15 yards before Alec was tackled by defense.

Jace helped Alec up and Alec looked a bit weary. "Did you see them tackle me?"

"Yeah like they were trying to kill you. Look be careful tonight ok?"

"Yeah, ok," Alec said in agreement.

* * *

Clary was cheering and watching the game. The linemen seemed to be especially rough tonight and she couldn't help but wonder why. As she rustled her pom poms for the offense to score she cheered, "B-E-A-T! / B-E-A-T! / Beat those Great Danes! / Beat those Great Danes and fight / Tonight! /Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown!"

Clary could feel the excitement of the game, she felt like she mattered to the success of Jace's plays. The ball is snapped to Jace and he makes to pass it to Alec but just moments after the ball leaves his hand one of the Great Dane's linemen slam into his chest. A foul is called and Clary barks from the sideline that it was roughing the passer. Jace gets up slowly, much slower than he usually would. Clary was worried, she saw Alec helping him up and patting him on the shoulder.

Clary's phone went off but she couldn't get to it. Izzy would kill her if she touched her phone during a game. Clary watched as the boys got into position and their center, Jordan Kyle hiked the ball to Jace. The offensive linemen were doing a good job of making sure Jace was covered. He passed the ball to Alec, their running back, and Alec took off at a sprint. She didn't see what happened next though because a head of white blonde hair floated into her field of vision. "Jonathan?" She shouted into the stands.

Her brother's head whirled toward her. "Clarissa!" He said smiling and waving at her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him.

"I came to watch your game!" He said.

She pouted at him. Izzy was giving her a glare that would kill weaker women. "I've got to go, we can talk later."

Izzy wanted Clary to fly. She watched the scoreboard, they were up by 7 points. The girls started a cheer and Clary jumped onto the bases arms and was thrown into a basket toss. She sailed into the air and piked with her legs perfectly straight and toes pointed. There was a howl of pain from the field and it broke Clary's concentration. She landed hard on the bases but didn't hurt anyone or herself.

Some of the girls were cringing. Clary looked onto the field and saw Alec was on the ground gripping his knee. She hadn't even had time to see what had happened. Coach Herondale went out onto the field. Alec moved his hand so the medics could look at it and with a surge of revulsion she saw his leg was broken and the white bone was sticking out of the front of his leg. Her heart sunk. Alec was a fantastic running back and they'd have a hard time replacing him. Izzy looked close to a nervous breakdown. Clary rubbed her back and gave her a hug.

Alec was carted off the field by paramedics and taken to the hospital. Izzy was full on ugly crying and saying she wanted to go to the hospital with him. Clary didn't know what to do or say. The player that had clipped Alec was tossed out of the game. It struck Clary that this had been an exceptionally difficult game. They were still in the lead by 6 points but at what price? Clary automatically looked for Jace on the field. She was worried about him. Were the Great Danes intentionally trying to take out the whole team? Well they'd succeeded in ending the season for Alec and potentially his whole career.

Clary soothed Izzy with another couple hugs. They had a backup running back but he was a junior and not nearly as experienced as Alec.

Clary watched them play and cheered for over an hour more. Several times the Great Danes attempted to clip Jace and they succeeded in slamming into him very hard a couple times. His ribs would probably be bruised.

The Mahopac Angels ended up winning the game but barely. They scraped by with a two-point lead at the end of the fourth quarter. Jonathan came down at the end of the game and gave her a hug.

"Were you friends with the guy who got his leg broken?" Jon asked.

"Kind of yeah, he's Jace's best friend."

"Oh. That's unfortunate." Jon said.

"Yeah, well the dance is next so I really need to go. Got to get all dolled up and shit."

"Ok, it was nice watching you cheer. I probably won't be around much this weekend I've got a ton of homework to do."

"Oh alright," she gave him another hug and sighed. "See you around."

"Ok! Bye sis!"

* * *

Clary caught a ride with Jace back home. He looked furious when she first saw him. "Any word on Alec?"

"He's in surgery right now. Maryse and Izzy are with him." Jace replied.

"I'm so sorry babe," Clary said, pouting at him.

"We actually need to talk about why Alec got hurt tonight."

"Yeah I didn't see it, I was doing a stunt, what happened?"

"Alec got clipped really hard by one of the Great Danes, I saw it happen. Your brother came and talked to me before the game…"

"Oh? What did he say?"

"That he had paid all the Great Danes to try to take me out."

"WHAT?!" Clary screeched.

"Yep. He said he was calling in favors from old friends and that he liked favors that were season-ending injuries."

Jace pulled into Clary's drive. "I'll talk to him. Oh my god I'm going to kill that fucker!"

They kissed and she exited the car with all her cheer things. "See you in a few hours!" She said waving goodbye to him. She ran into the house and shivered slightly. It was the beginning of October and there was a chill in the air.

Very surprisingly neither her mother's car nor Luke's was in the drive. However, there was a black Audi R8 in the drive and she really might murder her brother. She stormed into the house and shrilly called "Jonathan get your ass down here!"

He popped his head out of his room. "What's wrong?" He said innocently

"You threatened my boyfriend and you probably got Alec's leg broken!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Jonathan said and frowned at his sister.

"Oh yes, you do! You went up to him before the game and threatened him with season-ending injuries."

"If I was going to threaten him like that why wouldn't I have just broken his arm when I was standing in front of him?"

"Because! That would be easy to trace back to you." She was shouting at him from downstairs and he looked relatively bored. "What do you think I would do to you if you hurt Jace?"

"I don't know Clarissa."

"Get down here!" She screamed at him.

"Fiiiiine." Jonathan sighed. Jonathan came downstairs with some trepidation. "You can't hurt me!"

As soon as his foot hit the first floor Clary was pulling her open hand back and made contact with his face, leaving a nasty palm-shaped red mark.

"Why'd you do that?" Jonathan bit out. His nose was bleeding and he looked thoroughly pissed off.

"You ended Alec's chances of getting a scholarship for college! Jace's ribs are bruised! It hurts for him to breathe!"

"Why do you care what happens to him so much? You guys have only been dating for like a month."

"I love him!" Clary blurted out before she could even think about it.

"No, you don't, I bet you haven't even told him that you love him." Jonathan guessed. "How can you love someone who you barely know!"

Clary went red. "Shut the fuck up Jonathan, Jace and I were friends for ages. You were there tonight to make sure Jace got hurt weren't you?"

Jonathan rolled his eyes "Yeah I was, ok!"

Clary charged forward and put all her strength into knocking Jonathan down. Jonathan was more muscle than he looked like. With effort, she knocked him to the ground and pulled back one of her tiny fists and punched him in the stomach. "Ow damn it, Clarissa!"

"How dare you! How dare you try to end Jace's season!" She screeched at him.

She continued to pummel his abdomen and chest for another minute. Jonathan had turned a shade of red, probably from restraining himself from hitting her. Finally she struck him in the face making blood spurt from his already sore nose. He threw her off him with force and she landed on her hands and knees, unhurt.

He clutched his nose, the New England Patriots jersey he was wearing was ruined with blood. "Clarissa, what's the matter with you," He was clutching the bridge of his nose to stem the flow of blood. "How could you possibly choose Jace's side over mine? I've been playing for the Rams for close to 2 years. Don't you understand this is my only chance at the NFL?"

"I don't care! How could you possibly do another person bodily harm over _football_?"

"You wouldn't understand! The real question is how could you hit your own brother in anger over someone who's not even family?"

Clary huffed, he was right she wouldn't understand, she could never understand ripping away someone's future from them over a fucking game! "You know, you were always doing shady shit in high school. Now I know you haven't changed a bit. I always overlooked whatever you were doing because you're my brother but I don't think I can let this go." Clary was so frustrated! How could he do this? She stormed into her room, barely giving him a glance.

She still had to get ready for the dance and she was going to be late at this rate. She noticed she still hadn't gotten her period yet, which was a bit frightening. Her breasts were sore, too. She was over two weeks late for her period. She sighed.

* * *

Clary had managed to curl her hair into cute ringlets without Izzy's help and was wearing a red evening gown. She'd gone through Jace's ties the week previous and he was wearing a black tux with a red tie, her dress was floor length, and had a pattern of silver stars stitched into it. She'd gone with thick winged eyeliner and a smoky eye. She had matte red lip stain on.

Her phone went off just as she was tucking the last bobby pin into her hair.

[ J. Herondale ] I'm outside.

Jocelyn was upstairs having a fight with Luke so she wasn't beholden to say good night.

She got a nice dress coat from the hall closet and picked up the trailing end of her dress and walked over to the Audi. "Hi, handsome."

"You look amazing," Jace said, sucking in a breath. They were almost in the dark but his pupils were barely bigger than the tip of a pin.

"You look great too." She pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Let's go."

They drove to the high school and she got out and straightened her dress out. They walked into the high school, and Clary retrieved her school ID from her clutch. They both showed their ID's to the teacher that was monitoring students entering the dance.

Jordan Kyle, a member of the football team, came up and gave Jace a brotherly hug. "How's Alec?"

"He's in recovery. They're saying 6 months recovery time though." Jace said sadly.

"That's too bad. Clary, how are you?"

She had been spacing out while Jace talked about Alec and she just barely caught what Jordan said to her. "I'm good, glad you guys pulled a victory out of tonight." She said, smiling at him. Jordan was probably here with Maia, another junior in Clary's year.

Aline was there at the punch bowl. Clary waved animatedly to her friend. "How's the punch?" She asked Aline as Jace excused himself to go catch up with the other football players and talk about Alec's condition.

"Spiked as fuck, this is my second cup."

She figured someone would probably spike the punch. It didn't really matter that there were teachers and parents chaperoning the event it wasn't like they searched you before you came in. She took a tiny sip of the punch. Damn, she really shouldn't. She wanted to drink to shake off the feelings Jonathan had given her earlier that night but something told her she would probably be driving Jace back in the Audi. He was pretty upset about Alec. She figured she would give the punch to Jace.

She found him talking among a group of football players. She hoped he wasn't talking about her brother and the threats Jonathan had made. She still didn't know what to make of her brother betraying her trust like that. It was like he thought her and Jace had just happened over night… She had always been his favorite and she'd always returned the sentiment but because of Kaelie she'd always hesitated.

The were fashionably late so everyone was already there and a bit tipsy. "Hey, babe."

"Hey! Guys, this is my girlfriend Clary." Even in heels she was still a tiny little thing. The four inch pumps she was wearing only made her 5'5" which was really an average height. She was greeted with the faces of ten or so varsity football players. She beamed up at them and squeezed her hand with Jace's. They were intimidating but she knew them all. She recognized Jordan, Simon and Raphael but she couldn't put names with faces for the other seven boys.

A slow song came on and the football players dispersed, each looking for their dates. Jace gave her a little bow, "May I have this dance?"

She giggled lightly. "Of course you can." She flushed, even though he couldn't see it in the dim lighting.

The acoustic notes of Ed Sheeran's guitar sound from the speakers. "I love this song." She said to him.

"So do I," Jace said, with a slight slur to his words.

He took her and held her, wrapping his muscular arms around her form. She'd never danced with Jace before and it was nice. Something was wrong though. He didn't seem focused and he tripped once or twice. She looked him in the eye and his pupils were still pinpoint as hell.

"Can I cut in?" Magnus Bane said. He was wearing a purple tux and looked rather conspicuous.

Jace gave him a look. But Clary smiled. "Hi Magnus, of course you can. Jace could you get me some punch?"

"Sure."

Magnus danced the rest of the song with her and at the end, she asked him, "Do you think he's… upset?"

"Alec's his best friend. I know I'm upset. It'll be fine biscuit."

"He was acting weird earlier. He tripped while we were dancing and he's slurring his words like he's drunk?"

"He's high, dear. I thought you knew. He loves oxys, isn't that like a well-known fact about Jace?"

She was silent for a minute. Her brother had been right all along! She sighed. She was angry. How could she not know something like this?

"Thanks, Mags. You know what? Tonight has been a complete wash and I would love it if you could just walk me home."

"Do you want to say goodnight to Jace?" Magnus said. He looked like he regretted telling Clary about Jace.

"No."

"Let's go then."

* * *

Leave me a review!


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: As always my friend reppinda5o3 is my alpha/beta reader and also co-conspirator!

* * *

Clary cried the whole way home. How could Jace… her Jace... be high on pain pills? She couldn't silence the thought in her head that was screaming that her brother was right. How could he possibly be right about Jace? As Magnus dropped her off at home she made her way directly to Jonathan's room. She knocked and waited.

"Jonathan? Are you there?" She looked at her phone, it was only 10:30 he should still be awake.

"Sis?" Jon said from the hallway. He had a plate of toast and a mug of coffee. "Are you ok? You look upset."

Indeed she probably looked like a raccoon. She looked at herself in the mirror and was horrified. Her mascara had bled down her cheeks. Her perfect lip stain was smudged. Her smoky eye now looked more like double black eyes. "Y-you were right!" She began sobbing again. "He's exactly who you said he was!" Her shoulders hung loose and shook with sobs.

"Aww." Jonathan said, "Come here, sis." He pulled her into his arms and squeezed her tightly. "This is exactly why I didn't want you guys together because I knew he would hurt you." She pulled back to look him in the eyes.

"I thought I knew him, Jon. We've been friends for so long and I see him almost every day. How did I not know?"

"Some people are just assholes who take advantage of girls, Clary. He kept it from you on purpose." It didn't sit right with Clary. She knew Jace and he wasn't the kind of person to take advantage of girls but that was certainly what this felt like.

"He was supposed to care about me. I feel betrayed. I know it was a lie by omission but it fucking hurts. It's causing me physical pain, Jon. I can't breathe. It's too much." She said, taking gasping breaths. "I fucking slept with him, Jon… I thought he was… I don't know anymore." She meant to say she thought he was _the_ _one_ but that wasn't true, was it? This was such a mess.

Jonathan looked shocked but said, "Hey, hey," pulling her back into his chest. "Let's get you ready for bed and then you can lie down. You'll feel better in the morning. And don't worry, I've got friends everywhere. I'll make sure you never have to deal with him again."

Clary didn't say anything to that. She was too overwhelmed by the events of the night. She still couldn't wrap her head around the fact that she really didn't know Jace at all and obviously he didn't want her to. She couldn't deal with his problems. At the moment she had enough of her own.

Jonathan led Clary back to her room where she grabbed pajamas and disappeared into the bathroom, still trying to stop the tears silently falling from her eyes. By the time Jonathan tucked her into bed and left the room, she was exhausted. She needed to check on Izzy and then _maybe_ she could sleep.

[ C. Fray ] How's Alec?

[ I. Lightwood ] He's just getting out of recovery. He's going to be in a lot of pain for a while.

[ C. Fray ] *frowning face* Is there anything I can do?

[ I. Lightwood ] No, but you should know that I know about Jonathan paying the Great Danes to hurt our team. Dad is going to press charges.

[ C. Fray ] Please tell him not to do it. Look, a lot has happened tonight. Apparently, Jace is on drugs?

[ I. Lightwood ] Yeah, Magnus texted me.

[ C. Fray ] Everyone knew but me, right?

[ I. Lightwood ] Kind of, yeah.

[ C. Fray ] Did you know?

[ I. Lightwood ] No, but Alec knew.

[ C. Fray ] Le sigh. Ok, I really need to go to bed.

[ I. Lightwood ] Goodnight! xoxo

* * *

Clary woke up to feeling vaguely nauseous which was strange because she'd barely had even a sip of the spiked punch the previous night. She laid in bed, a hand on her stomach. She'd been so busy with cheer and Jace she'd barely had time to focus on her own body. She felt kind of bloated… her pajamas were a little tight on her.

She noticed the blinking light flashing from her phone on her bedside table, notifying her of an awaiting text message. She picked it up, only to see Jace's name on the screen before her stomach roiled violently and she had to quickly throw the covers off of herself. She flew into the bathroom, kneeled beside the toilet and dry heaved since she hadn't eaten much last night. She felt awful…

It was probably time for her to stop ignoring the signs that had been bothering her for over two weeks now. This was another reason to be taking her missed period seriously. She heaved again into the toilet and this time Jon heard it. "Clarissa?" He hollered from the kitchen.

"In here!" She said miserably.

"Hey, are you ok?" He asked kindly.

She was draped over the toilet, attempting to make sure her waist length hair didn't fall into the toilet bowl or get puked on. Her brother was fishing the last of his cheerios out of his cereal bowl. "Y-yeah I'm fine. Had a bit too much to drink last night." She lied.

"Take it easy Clarissa." He admonished her. "You think you're done getting sick?"

"Yeah, I think so." She stood up, shaking slightly. She felt _awful_. She brushed her teeth and washed her mouth out with Listerine.

She didn't want to think about this. Was she… pregnant? Man, she didn't need this bullshit. Alec was still at the hospital recovering too which meant Izzy was indisposed. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She heard footsteps coming from the hall and she was just about to cry when Jon stepped back into the bathroom and handed her a 32-ounce bottle of Gatorade. "Try this, it works miracles on hangovers." She smiled at him and took it, then slipped into her room.

Picking her phone back up, she unlocked it and opened the messages from Jace. They were sent the previous night after she'd finally put the tears behind her and allowed her body to get the rest it desperately needed. It wasn't too surprising that it took him that long to notice her absence considering the state he was in but she supposed at least he had the decency to try and make sure she was texts read:

[ J. Herondale ] Hey! Where'd you go? I saw Magnus just now and he said you're mad at me.  
[ J. Herondale ] Whatever it is I want to talk about it…

[ J. Herondale ] I'm sorry, please come over?

The last message was sent at around one in the morning. She was surprised he had the energy to stay up that late. She didn't bother to text back. She'd touch base with him later. She had more important things to focus on at the moment. She dumped her purse on her bed and compiled enough one's for a pregnancy test. She figured it would be about 5 dollars if she could just get the cheapest. She had a credit card but cash seemed best for buying pregnancy tests with. God! How could she be so stupid! She should have never had sex with Jace. She thought about him for a moment, she hadn't been allowing herself to think of him since the homecoming dance. She thought of the way he'd held her the night he couldn't cum… He'd clung to her like she was his lifeline. Goddamn it!

* * *

She shouldn't have bought a cheap pregnancy test… there was an insert about six inches thick explaining results and what could be a false positive. It was a confusing mess because it was a mess of plusses and minuses and "don't tip the test forward or backward during the developing process". It said you could see a "reliable" result as early as 3 minutes. The stopwatch on her phone was going for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The control window was already filled out with a single pink line and a faint line was visible in the results window. Dear god, she'd never been in so much suspense.

She thought of all the consequences of having a baby with a drug addict. Granted, he was a rich drug addict but still, she didn't like the idea of having his DNA in her for 9 months.

She looked down at the results window and there was a bright pink plus sign. She took the test, all the papers that had come with it and all the caps and bullshit that was now proof positive she was having a baby by someone she was furious with, and dumped it in the bathroom trash.

She washed her hands and went to her room. She was so angry with him! This was his fault! He didn't know how to use a condom correctly! That had to be it! How was she supposed to know these things!

She picked up her phone with shaking hands and shot off a text.

[ C. Fray ] I'm surprised you even noticed I was gone last night at all but better late than never. Anyway, I'm coming over. We need to talk.

[ J. Herondale ] I thought you were mad at me for something so I didn't want to push you but I needed to make sure you were okay.

[ C. Fray ] Damn right I'm mad at you! You were high last night and apparently, that's normal for you!

[ J. Herondale ] Come over. This is not a conversation we should be having over text.

She got her purse and walked quickly to Jace's house. Her mind was going a million miles an hour. How was she going to tell him?

She rang his doorbell, probably for longer than was strictly necessary. He opened the door and Clary took a minute to look him over. He was shirtless, in bare feet and rolled down sweatpants. His eyes were bloodshot and he had grey circles under his eyes but he seemed sober.

"What the fuck happened to you?" She snapped at him, she was still lingering on his doorstep, since she hadn't been invited in.

"Come in Clary, please. I can't have the neighbors hearing."

"Is your dad home?"

"No, please come in."

She stepped over the threshold and gripped her purse. It was an over the shoulder bag from Vera Bradley. He led her through to the living room. She sat on the couch and he sat on the other end, out of reach.

"I'm so sorry about last night. I just took some pills to help with the pain in my chest."

"Right. Magnus told me this was a regular thing. Izzy said Alec knew about it. Don't try to fool me into thinking that this was a one-time thing."

Jace wrung his hands.

"You have a problem don't you?" Clary asked him, her voice shook.

He looked her in the eye and said, "Yeah I do. I've been struggling for the past two years and it's been really hard." He pulled a blue chip from his pocket. It had "Narcotics Anonymous" written on it. It was a six-month chip. "I never got past six months clean. I drink and smoke weed and I'm always thinking about how I can get dope or pills."

"You should've fucking told me! Instead, I had to hear it from everyone else who now all probably think I'm some naive little girl who doesn't know shit about shit. How could you?"

"Clary, I-"

"No, Jace. I can't even stand to look at you, let alone listen to your lies." Clary snapped ruthlessly at him. She sighed deeply, realizing she needed to reign in her anger. "Look, I don't want to fight with you. We need to talk about something important."

She looked down at her hands, clasped in her lap, trying to build up the courage to say what she needed to say. Taking a deep breath, she steeled her nerves and decided to just get it over with. She had to tell him and it was better to do it sooner rather than later.

"I haven't been feeling the best for about 2 weeks now. My breasts have been sore and my clothes are getting kind of snug on me. This morning I woke up nauseous and had to run to the bathroom to throw up. Jace, I haven't gotten my period, and up until today, I had an idea why but I didn't know for sure."

Jace looked at her with wide eyes, knowing what she was going to say before the words even left her lips. He didn't know how this could've happened to them. They were too young for a baby and he certainly wasn't in any shape to be a father.

"Jace, I'm-"

"Pregnant," he finished.

He knew it was a possibility and in theory, he was prepared for it but now that it had happened, he couldn't help but think about how big of a fuck up he was and how bad this would screw everything up for Clary. She didn't deserve to be stuck with someone like him.

"Do you want to get an abortion?" he asked. She looked at him, pensively.

"I'm asking because this isn't your fault and you don't deserve to have to give up your life for something you have no control over. You still get a choice."

Clary wrapped her arms around her stomach, imagining what it would be like when her stomach was so large that she wouldn't be able to see her own feet. She knew she was too young to be thinking about kids and Jace was offering her an out. It was something she couldn't help but consider.

She also thought about what it would be like to be a mom and to hold a small version of Jace or herself in her arms. It made her feel something that she didn't know she was capable of and that simultaneously scared and excited her.

She looked over at Jace, she had to know what his role would be in her life regardless of what her decision was. Did she even want him in her life anymore? She wasn't exactly sure how she felt after the trying day she'd already had but she needed to hear him out before she came to any rash decisions.

"What would you do if I decided to keep it?" she asked

"I would support you no matter your decision," Jace said soundly.

"That's a good answer." Clary said. She thought of the Jace she'd known over the years. The boy who had tutored her in math and science, the boy she'd cheered on alongside her brother at football games for three years, and the boy who could have easily gotten his Fordham scholarship based on grades just as easily as his football prowess. Was that boy a lie? She didn't think so. "I want to keep it and I know what you must be thinking, 'how could she possibly want to be with me right now?' Honestly, I don't want to be with you right now, but if you can promise me that you won't get into trouble or get high for the duration of my pregnancy then I can promise to stand by my man."

Jace had gone a bit white during her little talk. "I can't make that promise Clary. Addiction is a disease and one I'm not entirely in control of right now."

Clary nodded her head grimly. "Will you go to meetings?"

"Yes, I can manage that."

"Do you have more drugs in the house?"

"Uhhhh…." Jace stammered.

"The truth would be a nice change," Clary said bitterly.

Jace cleared his throat and stood up, leading her to his room. She followed close behind him. She had been looking into his eyes while she was speaking to him and she didn't see any signs of him being high.

She stepped into his room and he went to a safe in his room. "I'll need the passcode for the safe Jace. I'm going to need you, to be honest with me if we're going to do this."

He swallowed hard. "Yeah, you're right."

He handed her a baggie with bags of heroin and pills. "That's my whole stash."

"What about your emergency supplies?"

"How'd you know?" Jace said.

"Every druggie has an emergency supply, Jace." She rolled her eyes at him.

He opened his sock drawer and handed her some needles (still in plastic) and several bags of heroin. "That's it. That's all I've got."

"Ok," She said, and slipped out of his room to dispose of the drugs by flushing them down the toilet. She washed her hands and came back to his room.

"Why don't you go to a meeting and I'll talk to you on Monday?"

"Yeah ok. Look -"

"You're really sorry and you didn't mean to get me pregnant?"

He sighed heavily. "Yeah, that."

She sighed too. "I love you. I want you to be a good man and a good father but you can't do that with that bullshit in your life and you know it."

"I love you too and I promise I'll make things right."

"Ok." She kissed him on the cheek and went downstairs to let herself out.

* * *

Clary pulled open her front door and closed it behind her. Even after talking with Jace, their situation still didn't seem real. It felt impossible that the two of them could potentially be the parents of a little human being in less than three-quarters of a year. She had a lot of thinking to do and she needed the solitude of her room to do it in.

She tried to pull herself together before she entered the main part of the house. She knew if her brother saw her, he would know something was up.

Clary managed to make it to her door without running into anyone but the moment she went inside, she came across the exact person she was trying to avoid.

"Hey, Clarissa. Are you feeling any better? I figured you'd be in bed all day after the way you were feeling this morning," Jon said.

"I still feel a bit hungover but it's passing. I guess I just needed to get it out of my system," Clary replied.

"Yeah, guess so."

"What were you doing in my room, Jon?"

"I was just looking for something. I don't know why I thought it'd be in here but whatever. Anyway, I'll see you later. Don't overdo it today. Hangovers seem to have a funny way of sneaking back up on you," he said before quickly exiting the room.

Clary wasn't sure why her brother was acting strange but she had too much on her mind to be too concerned with his behavior. She knew that she and Jace had a hard road ahead of them but she was willing to make it work and it seemed like he was as well. She only hoped that the choice they were making was the right one for both of them and that neither of them would come to regret it.

* * *

Jace hurried to the door, hoping that he would be able to stop the incessant knocking, it was getting late now and his dad would be home soon. He was starting to get a headache and the excess noise wasn't helping. He quickly swung open the door, ready to give hell to whoever kept banging but before he could get a word out, someone charged at him and he was pinned up against the wall.

"YOU GOT MY LITTLE SISTER PREGNANT?"

Jace didn't bother responding. Obviously, by the way Jonathan was acting, he already knew the answer and was just trying to bait him. Jace pried his hands off of him and looked at him in exasperation.

"YOU DRUG ADDICTED, COCK SUCKING, DOUCHE BAG," he yelled before swinging. Jace could have dodged the blows but decided to let Jon have this one. He figured it was better than having people paid to take him out on the football field and if he was honest with himself, he knew he'd be reacting the same way if someone like him had gotten his little sister pregnant.

Jace allowed Jon three hits to his body before he fought back. Jon hadn't been expecting it so the one punch to his chin put him on his ass.

"Look, Jon. You can attack me all you want to but it won't change anything. Clary and I are going to have a baby together. That baby will be your niece or nephew and I will be its father. You can either get on board and be there to support your sister or fuck off. Either way, Clary and I are in this together."

Jon looked stunned at the confident look in Jace's eye. Clearly, he hadn't expected him to step up to the plate and want to be a part of Clary and the baby's lives but Jace was determined to find a way to make things work with her.

"You don't deserve to breathe the same air as my sister, you fucking pill head!" Jon snapped at Jace.

"Actually, she thinks I deserve a lot more than that and that's good enough for me," Jace said, smirking wickedly.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Jon leaped into the air and Jace could see he was about to get in a whole lot of trouble.

"Jonathan Morgenstern, you have three seconds to get off my son before I call the cops." It was Stephen Herondale, Jace's father, and Jon's former coach.

"Coach Herondale!" Jon said from on top of Jace.

"I said GET OFF MY SON!" Stephen Herondale roared at Jon. Jon pulled himself to his feet and snarled at Jace.

"Jon, you'd better go," Jace said.

"This isn't over!" Jon said as he stormed from Jace's house and slammed the front door behind him.

"What in the name of god was that about Jace?" Coach Herondale asked his son.

"Uhhh… I'm dating Clary, Jon's sister and he seems to think I don't deserve her." I mean, roughly that was what this was about right? It wasn't that far from the truth.

"Ok. So just teenage drama?"

"Yeah, it's not a big deal dad."

"Did he hit you? Are you hurt?" Coach Herondale inquired.

"He got me in the chest and stomach a couple times but nothing I can't handle."

"Ok. Why don't you go do that chemistry homework?"

"Sure, dad."

* * *

What did you think? Leave me a review!


	8. Chapter 8

"If you expect nothing from anybody, you're never disappointed."

-Sylvia Plath

* * *

Clary picked up her phone, she'd slept in and it was nearly ten in the morning.

[ J. Herondale ] I'm going to see Alec this morning want to come with?

[ C. Fray ] Sure, give me a bit to get dressed and showered?

[ J. Herondale ] Sounds good. Love you.

[ C. Fray ] Love you too.

Clary tossed the covers off of her but in the process of getting up, she seemed to provoke her morning sickness. She darted to the bathroom and heaved into the toilet. Unfortunately, she'd had a late snack at around three in the morning when she couldn't sleep. Whatever was left of that came up into the toilet. It was Sunday and she was looking forward to Jon heading back to campus.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. "Yeah?"

"Are you ok?" It was Jon.

"I'm fine. Go away."

"We need to talk," Jon said, sounding frustrated.

Clary felt another wave of sickness wash over her and she dry heaved into the toilet bowl. Jonathan turned the handle on the door and held her hair as she got sick.

"I know," Jon said. His meaning was obvious, it was clear that he'd done some nosing around. She should have been more careful! What if it had been her mother or Luke that found the test!?

She stood up and rinsed her mouth out and brushed her teeth all without saying anything to him. "What are you going to do?" She asked him, her voice shaking slightly.

"Well I'm not going to tell anyone but I did go over to his house last night."

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Clary bellowed at him.

"I went over to his house last night and laid into him before Coach Herondale found us."

Clary's jaw dropped. "Did Coach hear what you guys were talking about? Did you hurt Jace? God, Jonathan why couldn't you have just come to me?"

"No one heard us. Coach was pissed because I punched Jace a couple times."

"So you punched the father to your future nephew or niece? Nice Jonathan, I don't think you could get anymore caveman like if you tried!" Clary snapped at her brother.

"He did this to you! He hurt you, he ruined your future and he doesn't deserve you!"

"According to you, no one is good enough for me!" Clary said savagely.

"Well, there's definitely guys out there who are more deserving of you than _him_!"

"I have to go see Alec in the hospital right now I don't have time for this shit."

"We're going to have to talk eventually!" Jonathan snapped at her.

"Get away from me." Clary barked at her brother, and slipped past him into the hall and back to her bedroom, she locked her bedroom door behind her. Since Jonathan was making her late she would just have to put her hair up and change quickly.

Once she was dressed, she barreled out of the house without saying goodbye to anyone. She walked over to Jace's and rang his doorbell. Luckily as she left she noticed Jon's R8 wasn't in the drive anymore.

Jace came out and opened the door. He smirked at her and kissed her sweetly on the lips. "Ready?"

"Yep. Jon told me he paid you a visit last night. Are you ok?"

"A couple bumps and bruises but I'm ok."

"You'll have to let me see them later," Clary said.

The drive to the hospital was quick and Clary held Jace's hand the whole way. From what she could tell, he wasn't high.

Alec was in a regular hospital room which they had a bit of trouble finding. Finally, a nurse pointed them in the right direction and they found Alec's room.

Clary's heart sank when she saw Alec. He was on a morphine drip and looked a bit out of it. His leg was in a thick cast and it was propped up with a couple pillows. "Hey man," Jace said.

Alec opened his eyes. "Hey, you guys." His voice was soft and broken sounding.

"I brought Clary, is that ok?" Jace said softly to his best friend.

"Uh… what about her brother? Isn't she on his side?"

"Nah, buddy. She's on our side." Jace said confidently.

"Oh alright, come in then." They had been talking from the entrance to the hospital room, apparently, Jace was sensitive to the fact that Alec might not want to see Jonathan's sister.

Clary slipped her hand into Jace's and squeezed. This was horrible. "How're you feeling?" She asked Alec.

"Like I was run over by a bus," Alec said.

Clary nodded, "I want you to know I had no idea until it was too late. I tried to beat Jon up for what he did to you and Jace but it wasn't exactly a fair fight."

Alec laughed. "Thanks for defending my honor."

"Anytime, friend," Clary said smirking. Clary had never spoken much with Alec and when she had it had been gruff and brusque. She hoped things would get better between them. She felt partly at fault for Alec's current condition. It was her brother that had done this, wasn't it?

"Where's Izzy?" Jace asked.

"She went to get a cup of coffee. I had had a rough night and she was with me the whole time. Mom and dad are talking to the cops this morning."

"To try to get Jonathan arrested?" Clary asked. There was only one chair and Jace indicated to her that she should sit down.

"Yeah, I think so. I don't know how they're going to prove it though." Alec said. "Unless one of the players admits to taking a bribe to hurt the Mahopac team I don't see it going very far. He probably paid them all in cash and it's not like those guys are going to give up their football careers for us…Not to mention it's football and people get hurt all the time." Alec said, sounding slightly rankled.

Jace looked worried. "We'll find a way to get the bastard for what he's done to you, we have to." Jace took a breath, paused and added, "We have some news for you…"

Izzy walked into the room at that moment with a big cup of Starbucks coffee. "Hey!" She opened her arms and Clary hugged her best friend. Going through the whole pregnancy test and telling Jace without her had been so hard and she was glad to have her back now.

"We were just about to make an announcement that needs to stay between the four of us," Jace said.

"Ohh a secret!" Izzy said enthusiastically.

"Don't get excited Izzy," Clary said remorsefully.

Jace squeezed Clary's hand. "Clary's pregnant."

Izzy dropped her coffee and Alec facepalmed. "How many times do I have to tell you! Wrap it before you tap it!" Alec said frustratedly.

Izzy looked stunned into silence. Hot coffee was pooling around her feet. "Clary! Are you going to keep it?"

"Yeah. We are." Clary said shakily.

"Even after the fight, you got into the other night?" Izzy picked up the remainder of her coffee and started mopping up the mess she'd made.

"Jace is going to start going to meetings again and he's going to try to get clean." Clary bent down to help her friend mop up the hot coffee.

"I'm glad you guys have a plan. You know I'm here for you if you need me." Izzy looked up at the rest of the group. "So what are we going to do about Jonathan?"

"I don't know what to do about Jonathan… he went to Jace's house and roughed Jace up because he found my pregnancy test. I just don't know what to do." Clary sighed.

"Well, obviously he's a violent little fuck." Alec snarled.

"I just don't know how we're going to prove anything he did." Jace rubbed his temples.

"Well, we're going to have to keep our eye out for anything suspicious." Izzy conferred.

"Damn right," Alec said.

Izzy wrapped an arm around Clary's shoulders and squeezed. "You're going to be a great mom and Jace is going to be a great dad. You guys can do this."

"Thanks, Iz," Clary said smiling warmly at her friend.

* * *

[ J. Herondale ] Hey man.

[ S. Verlac ] What's goodie?

[ J. Herondale ] Got any bundles?

[ S. Verlac ] Always my man.

[ J. Herondale ] Can I roll through and pick up one?

[ S. Verlac ] Of course. Come through.

God, why was he doing this? Clary was trusting him to be a good dad and look at how he was throwing it away! What the fuck was he doing…? But he needed this! He needed to get high, he could already feel the dope sickness coming on. Every time he thought about shooting up or getting high his mouth watered with the desire to get high.

Jace grabbed the keys and drove over to Sebastian's apartment in Brooklyn. A quick hundred dollars in cash later he was now the owner of a bundle of heroin. Before he left the parking spot outside of Sebastian's place he pulled out a textbook from his backpack in the back seat and emptied one of the packets of heroin onto his chemistry textbook and snorted a couple lines.

Relief washed over him. A soothing warmth settled into his bones and he knew he better not have any more or he would nod out on the way back to his house.

He drove carefully back to his house. His dad was home so he would have to be extra careful. He hid the bundle of heroin in the bottom of his duffle bag.

His dad was watching a baseball game and not paying attention. He snuck into his room and closed the door.

* * *

Jace looked himself in the mirror… _fuck_ he was still high. He really needed to go to this meeting and even though he felt monumentally guilty for going to a Narcotics Anon meeting high, he knew it was never going to get better if he didn't get some help.

He grabbed the keys and drove to the church on the other side of town. There was a young people's meeting there tonight, and every Monday night at 7:30. He got out of the car and found his way to the meeting.

There were coffee and donuts. Most of the people were a bit older than him, probably in their twenties. There was a group of kids in their teens but they seemed to be something of a clique. Jace got some coffee and an apple cider donut.

"Everyone, we're about to start," one of the older guys said.

Everyone assembled and found a seat. Jace sat down next to a guy who was his age, no older than 17. They opened the meeting with the usual preambles and mission statements and other announcements.

"Does anyone feel like sharing tonight?" The leader of the meeting said.

Jace sure as hell wasn't going to share! Luckily after a brief awkward silence, the boy next to him said, "I will, hi everyone I'm Simon, I'm a heroin addict."

"Hi, Simon." The group responded.

"Today I have two years clean. Sometimes I can't believe it's been that long since I used. I think about using every day and it's still a temptation to me. The other day I had my wisdom teeth pulled and it hurt so, so, so much! The doctor prescribed me Vicodin and it would have been so easy to fill the prescription, go home and get faded. But it wouldn't have ended there would it? Using once only leads to more using and there's no way to go back. If I had filled that prescription I probably would have overdosed. I literally have no control when I use. I guess that's all I have to say, it was just a really near miss for me."

Jace empathized with this guy on so many levels. He guessed after two years of sobriety this guy, Simon, probably had more willpower than he had.

"Hi I'm Jace and I'm also a heroin addict," Jace said. What could he lose by sharing? "I relapsed recently, like, really recently. My girlfriend is pregnant and she's only sixteen. I play football and I could lose my scholarship if the college I want to go to finds out that I'm having drug issues. My girlfriend thinks that just because she's pregnant, it's going to turn me into someone I'm not. She thinks very highly of me mostly because she knows me as the sober Jace and not the fucked up all the time and high as a kite Jace. I have no idea what I'm doing, being here but I know she expects me to do something about my addiction and I want to be better for her and the baby. I also can't afford to ruin my future so here I am. I'm at a meeting and hoping someone can be my sponsor so I have someone to talk to about everything."

There were some nods of assent. "At the end, we'll be sure to ask if anyone is willing to do sponsors." The leader said.

Various people went around the room and told their stories and Jace listened to them all. Most of the people there were heroin addicts or cocaine addicts. He had a lot in common with them on one hand but also very little in common with them at the same time. Some of the people here were homeless, most of them were in their twenties but still… he wasn't _that bad_.

The meeting only lasted about an hour and at the end, the leader asked people with more than a year clean to volunteer to sponsor someone. Simon, the kid he was sitting next to, raised his hand and Jace wondered if he should even bother….

"Hey, uhm, could we talk?" Jace asked Simon.

"Yeah sure, let me grab a cup of coffee and we can go smoke a cigarette."

"Uhhh…I don't smoke." Jace followed Simon over to the coffee dispenser and watched as Simon put about fifteen packets of sugar into his coffee. Jace cringed. "Isn't that a lot of sugar?"

Simon turned his head and looked Jace in the eyes. He smirked, "C'mon man, let's go outside."

They stepped outside and Simon lit up a cigarette. "You can judge my sugar intake when you're not high." He said in an undertone.

"What? I'm not-"

"Don't bother denying it. I can tell you're a newcomer because anyone who knew how these meetings worked would know better than to show up to one high."

"I'm sorry, is it making you uncomfortable?" Jace said.

Simon took a long drag of his cigarette and exhaled, the cigarette smoke mixing with the fresh night air. It was mid-October now and the air was crisp.

"No, but it's really bad form."

"Sorry. I can go?"

"You were looking for a sponsor right?" Simon asked.

"Yeah, actually I was."

"Ok, well if you want me to help, I'm more than willing. The first thing is getting you sober." Simon said.

"Yeah, every time I try to get sober I get dope sick."

"Mhmm… you're going to have to get over that. It will go away on its own or you can get Suboxone."

"Suboxone?" Jace asked.

"It's meant to help you slowly taper off the bad stuff. Did you shoot up before you got here?" Simon asked.

"Nah, just some lines."

"Alright, did you drive?"

"Uhhh... yeah," Jace said guiltily.

"Ok, you need to think real hard before you drive high. You could die. How would you feel if that girlfriend of yours had to raise your child as a single mother?"

"Don't even say that!" Jace was highly affronted.

"See? You don't want to even think about it. Let me drive you home."

Jace cast a glance to his Audi. It was his baby. "Yeah ok. But how are you going to get home?"

"I can take the bus."

"Ok thanks, man," Jace said.

The ride home was uneventful except for Simon oohing and aahing at all the gadgets in the Audi and marveling at the heated seats. They exchanged numbers when they were back in Jace's driveway. "Call me anytime day or night, that's what sponsors are for."

"Thanks!" Jace said as Simon walked down the driveway.

* * *

When Jace got home, he tried his best to concentrate on the homework he needed to finish but he was still feeling a few the residual effects of the lines he'd done earlier. Not enough for him to really be high anymore but just enough to mess with his ability to stay focused on the task at hand.

He also couldn't stop himself from dwelling on how hard it was going to be to quit the lifestyle that he was so accustomed to. He'd been there before. After all, at one point, he did have six months clean but it was hard then and it would be even harder now. Especially if he was planning to not only make it to six months but continue to stay clean beyond that.

He knew he needed to make that commitment to his child and to Clary but he'd already fucked up, the day after he told her he would be sober and support her. He already felt like he was facing a mountain that he didn't have the skills or equipment to climb.

He did have Simon this time though and the thought of that gave him a little bit more hope the moment he remembered how nice the guy was in making sure he got home safely. He'd never had a friend he could be completely honest with that was still willing to be there for him and even though Simon was his sponsor, he felt like it would be something like that.

Maybe he could do this. Optimism wasn't really his thing, he was more of a realist but he had to put his faith in something, otherwise, he'd be doomed from the start and he didn't have the freedom anymore for that to be the case.

After thirty minutes or so of trying to center himself, he gave up and decided to go lay on his bed. He put headphones in and cranked up the volume, hoping that getting lost in some music would help him get out of his own head. His iPod was on shuffle and one of his favorite songs came on, it was an old Fall Out Boy song.

 _Am I more than you bargained for yet?  
I've been dying to tell you anything you want to hear  
'Cause that's just who I am this week_

* * *

He'd been laying there for he didn't know how long when he felt a vibration coming from his pocket. He had turned the ringer off for the meeting and had forgotten to turn it back on. Pulling it out and seeing that it was Clary calling him, he removed his headphones and quickly answered.

"Hey, babe," Jace greeted her.

"Hey. How are you? How did the meeting go?"

"I'm alright. The meeting was good, although talking about our personal shit in front of a bunch of strangers wasn't the greatest thing but I managed," he said, thinking about awkward it felt to sit in that circle and give them all his story.

"I'm proud of you for doing this, for trying Jace, and I love you, more than you know."

That made him feel like absolute shit. He was already beating himself up for being weak enough to go out and buy drugs after he told Clary he would try but hearing her say how proud she was of him and to know how much she loved him made it that much worse. At least he had gotten a sponsor to help him. He needed her to know, even if just to help keep himself in line, that Simon would be there to help him.

"I love you too, Clary. I wanted you to know that I got a sponsor. He's been clean for two years and I think he's actually going to help me. I really am going to try. I need you to know that."

"I do know, Jace. I know the kind of person you are, even if you don't know it yourself. We'll get through this. Me, you and now your sponsor. What's his name?" Clary asked.

"Simon. He seems like a really good guy," Jace replied.

"Good. Then between the two of us, we should be able to keep you out of trouble," Clary laughed lightly before becoming serious. "Please don't ever forget, I'm here for you too. Don't shut me out because you're afraid I can't handle something. If I'm going to be a parent to our child, I have to start acting like an adult and if we're going to be together and raise our child together, that means we have to start acting like a team. Let me be a person you can lean on because we're going to need each other."

Jace was momentarily speechless. Clary had always been the more mature of the two of them he supposed but she'd really turned the heat up on him. She was acting like a responsible adult at barely sixteen and he obviously needed to catch up. It was time for him to step up to the plate and be the man she needed. There were no words to accurately convey what Jace was currently feeling so he said the only thing he could think of.

"I'm with you, baby."

They were on the phone for a few minutes longer and after again saying their 'I love you's,' Clary told him she was tired and decided she wanted to go to bed.

Jace put his headphones back in and allowed his mind to go over everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. After his conversation with his girlfriend, who he realized, not for the first time, was absolutely amazing, things didn't seem as daunting as they did before.

He had people on his side, people that were rooting for him, people he could count on to be there and maybe that would make all the difference. He changed into clean shorts and turned off the lights. He should call it an early night.

* * *

A/N: So here's how this is going to work if you leave a signed review of this chapter I will give you a preview of the next chapter as something to look forward to. As always my beta is reppinda5o3.

As for recommendations, I've just bought the new Halsey album and it's _amazing_.

Every time a new chapter is completed I will post a graphic on tumblr. My tumblr is dahdarios. I'll be posting graphics and small snippets from the chapters for all of you to see!


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Sexually explicit content within.

* * *

Jace was sitting at his desk. It was after school on Tuesday, the day after he'd met Simon. He fingered the Fordham agreement and read through it for probably the 50th time. There was a clear section about drug testing and the fact that there would be both scheduled and random drug tests. Below that there was a section about a mandatory drug test before the program started. _Dear_ _Lord_! His father had already signed both the coach's agreement and the parental consent part.

He was going to do this… He picked up his lucky pen and nearly started to sign the document. He hesitated though. There was almost a full bundle of heroin in his safe. He roughly got out of his desk chair and went over to his safe, keying in the code. He took the bundle of heroin and started dumping it into the toilet. He was on the last packet when he finally paused. Maybe…. If he just kept one packet? Just so he wasn't going out and buying shit whenever he had a craving? He could just look at the packet, know it was there and close the safe back up. He took his phone from his pocket and texted Simon.

[ J. Herondale ] Hey man… I'm kind of having a problem.

[ S. Lewis ] Like girl problems?

[ J. Herondale ] More like heroin issues.

[ S. Lewis ] You want me to come over and talk?

[ J. Herondale ] Yes, please. I need to sign the promissory letter for my college football deal but there's all kinds of drug testing and shit I'm freaking out.

[ S. Lewis ] Ok, why don't you go for a run and I'll be there in 20 minutes?

[ J. Herondale ] Sounds good.

* * *

Instead of going for a leisurely run Jace set up some sports equipment in the backyard and did sprinting drills in the grass for about 15 minutes. His father would be proud of him for doing extra training. He was winded and sweaty when he heard someone call his name and he was relieved to hear Simon's voice calling for him.

"Simon! I'm in the back!" Jace called out

Simon's face popped up by the garage. "This is a very nice place you've got here."

"Thanks."

"What happened to the run you were supposed to go on?" Simon asked

"Sprinting drills instead. More endorphins." Jace said simply.

"Nice! So what's up?" Simon asked.

"Come with me." Jace took his shirt and wiped the sweat off his face with it. Jace led him into the house. Jace was lucky his dad wasn't home. He was at the coach's office watching replays of their game against the Great Danes. God only knew why. It had been a horrible game. Jace led him up the stairs to his bedroom.

"Nice digs. You know for a heroin addict you got it pretty good." Simon said

"Yeah, well, things aren't always what they seem." Jace kneeled down to his safe and opened it up. He held out the remnants of the bundle of heroin.

"Whoa. You need to warn a man before you pull out that kind of shit." Simon said and gulped.

"Sorry. I just need someone to help me get rid of it. I can't bring myself to dump it."

"Ok, first of all, what's using going to get you compared to being clean?" Simon said reasonably.

"Well getting clean will give me a potentially promising football career and a girlfriend that loves me and a son or daughter with a good dad," Jace replied. "Using only makes me feel good for a few hours."

"Exactly. You have so much to lose. Shouldn't it be clear to you which one you should choose?" Simon said.

Jace hummed. "Yeah but it's not."

"That's the addiction speaking. That's not Jace. I haven't known you longer than 48 hours and I can already empathize with you. You said it at the meeting, your girlfriend knows you as a good person and you care about her right? Well, I think you should put her first. Do whatever makes her happy because I think she's got the right idea about you." Simon said wisely.

It made sense when Simon put it like that but that last bag was like a safety net. It would catch him if he ever fell. But not anymore, he had Clary and Simon for that now and he needed to learn to trust that they would save him from himself.

Trusting they were there didn't stop him from wanting to keep that bag of heroin though. He weighed his options, knowing he only really had one.

"Fuck," Jace said as he opened the bag and dumped the contents in the toilet before he could change his mind. He flushed, watching the water swirl around and disappear only to be replaced with new, heroin free water.

He actually felt a loss, recognizing that it would be his last bag ever. He pulled himself together when he realized that if he didn't get rid of the drugs, he'd be watching Clary and his baby leaving him instead. He knew he made the right decision, it would just take a little bit for the part of him that was the addict to agree.

* * *

Jace pushed himself off the cold tile in the bathroom to expel the non-existent contents of his stomach into the toilet again. The only thing he'd put inside of his body for the last twenty-four hours was water and he couldn't even hold that down. He just wanted it to stop and contemplated for a moment if feeling sick for this long was really worth going to all the trouble to quit. He quickly put those thoughts out of his head. He knew it was just his addicted brain talking. He wondered if Clary ever felt resentful of their baby when she was puking her guts out? But no, Clary was the sweetest girl that Jace had ever met. Yeah, she was a spitfire but she was the kind of person you wanted to love you because she made you a better person.

There was a warmth about her that just didn't exist anywhere else and if you were fortunate enough to experience it, you were one lucky bastard.

He realized he could use some of that warmth now. He was absolutely freezing. He was sweating but the chills were overtaking his whole body and he could feel an ache deep in his bones. Jace has been lying on the floor for hours by that point, so long that he'd lost track of time.

Getting to the bathroom was so urgent that he'd even left his phone sitting on the table by his bed. He'd heard it go off quite a few times since he'd been lying there but after getting sick so much, he couldn't really do anything but become one with the floor.

He probably had a ton of missed calls and texts from Clary and told himself he would call her back as soon as he could drag himself back to his room.

Jace wondered if she would come over to see him. He needed to be with her even if he didn't really want her to see him like this.

Standing up, Jace brushed his teeth and made his way back into his room, determined to trade in his soaked shirt for a clean one. He had just gotten it over his head when he heard someone's throat clearing behind him. He turned, wondering who the hell was in his room when he realized it was Clary sitting on his bed. He knew then that he must've really been feeling like shit because he hadn't even heard anyone enter his house, let alone his room.

Clary looked up at him with her eyes that seemed to always see everything. No words were spoken between them, they didn't need to be. Jace knew exactly why she was there. She would always be there when he needed her. She held out her arms to him, beckoning to come to her.

He wasted no time crossing the room and nearly launching himself into her. God he fucking loved her. She rocked him for a moment before urging him to climb into bed properly and covering them both up with his blanket. Holding his head to her chest, she rubbed his back and stroked his hair until he finally fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

The first day was the beginning of a week from hell. He basically felt like he had a really bad case of the flu and that's why everyone thought he was missing school and practice. The only ones who knew differently were Clary, Simon, Alec, and Izzy.

By Friday, Alec had finally made it out of the hospital and planned to come over to visit. Jace hadn't heard from him in a while so he shot him a text to see what was up.

[ J. Herondale ] Hey man. You still coming over? I mean, I still feel under the weather but we need to talk.

[ A. Lightwood ] That sucks bro. I thought you'd be on the upswing by now. Izzy is currently fixing her face or whatever but we'll be heading out afterward. I don't understand why all that makeup shit has to take so long.

[ J. Herondale ] Cut her some slack, bro. She's been working her ass off to take care of everyone. She can take as long as she wants.

[ A. Lightwood ] How did you get rid of your dad by the way? I assume he won't be there when we're there.

[ J. Herondale ] He's holding tryouts for a new running back. He's got his hands full.

[ A. Lightwood ] That blows.

[ J.. Herondale ] Tell me about it. I'll see you in like 15?

[ A. Lightwood ] Sure.

Jace rolled over in bed as a terrible bout of chills gripped his body. He probably had a fever. He was about to close his eyes but his phone went off. He swore under his breath and opened his phone to see who the text was from.

[ C. Fray ] How're you feeling?

[ J. Herondale ] Basically like I'm dying.

[ C. Fray ] Please don't die. *pouty face emoji*

[ J. Herondale ] It'll last another few days and then I'll be good.

[ C. Fray ] I have a couple hours. I quit cheer today so I'm available.

[ J. Herondale ] That's sad. I'm sorry sweetie. Alec and Izzy are coming over. You want to make it a get together?

[ C. Fray ] Sure! I'll be there in 10

Jace closed his phone and supposed he should probably put on some real clothes. He was currently clad in only a two-day old pair of boxers. He hefted himself off the bed and trudged into the bathroom. God, Clary wasn't going to be pleased. He had thick gray marks under his eyes and his complexion was an awful yellow-grey color. At least his dad would believe him that he was sick.

He washed his face with warm water, shaved and put on jeans and a t-shirt and hoodie. My god, he was exhausted, and the only thing he'd done was lay in bed all day…. that wasn't good. The doorbell rang and he went downstairs.

* * *

Alec and Izzy were both waiting outside for him. "Hey, are you ok?" Alec said as he wobbled into the house on crutches and Izzy followed behind him.

Jace made to respond but his voice came out all croaky, he cleared his throat and tried again. "Yeah… It's basically like having the flu." He gave Izzy a hug and she hugged him fiercely back.

"You look almost as bad as I did," Alec said. He flopped down on the couch and cursed softly, gripping his leg.

"I don't know, Alec, I think we're about even," Jace said lightly and flashed his best friend a smirk.

"Shut up bro," Alec said smirking back at Jace.

"I invited Clary over too. She should be here any minute."

Just as the words left Jace's mouth, his girlfriend walked into the house. She knew his dad wasn't going to be home and she had become accustomed to just entering without knocking whenever he wasn't home.

"Hey baby," he said before placing a lingering kiss on Clary's lips.

She pulled back, slightly and placed her hands on each of his cheeks, holding his head in place. He didn't want to look her in the eyes, knowing what she would see there and not wanting her to detect the weakness he was feeling. She'd already seen him at the worst but he didn't want her to be disappointed that it was still affecting him.

She stroked his face, slowly and gently, like she was trying to massage the color back into his cheeks. Jace closed his eyes and enjoyed her tender touch. She continued to caress his face for another moment and Jace felt content but then the kisses came, softly. One on his forehead, one across each eyelid, one on each cheek and finally her lips settled on his with their foreheads resting against each other.

He opened his eyes and stared deeply into hers. In that moment, he fell even more in love with her and for the first time, allowed himself to really think about what an amazing mom she was going to be.

"I missed you," she whispered.

"I missed you too."

They were finally broken out of their little bubble by the clearing of throats behind them.

"You guys are sickening to be around these days," Izzy complained, with an air of amusement.

"We came here to talk so let's talk," Alec said. "What are we going to do about Jonathan? We have to come up with some kind of plan."

They all sat down in the living room and it was completely silent as the seconds ticked by. The situation needed to be handled in a way that worked out for everyone and that was always easier said than done.

Jace thought about it for a moment. Alec had made a really good point before. They had no evidence to get him convicted or anything like that and he seriously doubted they'd find anyone to roll over on him. They had to be smart. They may not be able to send Jon to jail for what he'd done but Jace could sure as hell make sure it didn't happen again. Jon needed to grow up and Jace was going to be the one to put him in his place.

"I think the best thing to do is for me to talk to him."

"Jace, the last time you guys 'talked' he attacked you. Don't you think it would be better if someone else did it?" Clary asked, concerned. She knew he could more than handle his own against her brother, she was just sick of all the fighting. She knew exactly how volatile Jon could be and sending Jace in there to have any kind of conversation, whether good or bad, was like unnecessarily poking the bear.

"It has to be me," Jace said. Clary looked at him, searching for answers. He grabbed her hand and held it tight. "Trust me, I'm exactly the person for the job." He said confidently.

He didn't elaborate beyond that but received a nod of approval from Alec and Izzy and after continuing to search his face for any hints of a strategy he wasn't sharing, he got a hollow acquiescence from Clary.

He wasn't really making an effort not to hide things from her but this was something he just couldn't share. He wanted to protect her and didn't want to get her hopes up in case it didn't work.

He had to wait until he was better. He couldn't go to Jonathan looking like he currently did. He needed some time to prepare but he was determined to do this, mostly to make it right for the people he loved but a small part of him also wanted to prove to his biggest critic that he could and would be the man his sister needed and deserved.

* * *

2 weeks later

Clary felt like she was on the hurl a whirl every morning. Only now she had an additional symptom. Instead of being sick immediately when she woke up she was now getting up and feeling painfully hungry. She would then go into the kitchen and stuff her face with food and then hurl that up. On the whole, she felt like she was getting worse. Her breasts were a tiny bit swollen and they hurt like hell.

It was about 7 am on Wednesday morning and she knew she was going to be late for school. She heard her phone go off from her bedroom, flushed the toilet, and rinsed her mouth out. She went to her bedroom and checked her phone.

[ J. Herondale ] How're you feeling? I was going to offer to pick you up.

[ C. Fray ] I was sick as a dog this morning. I just got done praying to the porcelain god.

[ J. Herondale ] I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do?

[ C. Fray ] I don't know. It would be really nice if you could drive me to school. I'm not exactly feeling like walking.

[ J. Herondale ] Ok, I'll pick you up in 30?

[ C. Fray ] Yeah, sounds good.

She put her phone down just in time to make it to the bathroom so she could finish getting sick. God, she hoped she could keep it together in school.

* * *

She had barely made it to her locker before... she had to make a dive for the ladies room. She rinsed her mouth and tried to gently jog down the hall, knowing she was already late for her first class.

By the time lunch came around, she was back in the bathroom again. She had both Jace and Izzy trying to discreetly make sure she was okay but she couldn't stick around long enough to reassure them.

She was surprised she had anything left to throw up but it felt like it would never stop. It couldn't be normal to vomit this much, could it?

She got up off her knees and walked to the sink to wash her mouth out. She was thankful no one had walked in and wondered how long it would be before she wasn't so lucky.

Checking herself out in the mirror, Clary turned to the side and slightly lifted up her shirt. She didn't see anything quite yet but when she pressed on her abdomen, it felt firmer than it used to. It took only a moment for her to realize that pressing on her stomach at all was a terrible idea. She felt a slight wave of nausea but was able to push it down enough to keep herself from running back to the toilet.

Clary pulled out her phone and immediately started searching the internet. She needed to find out whether the levels of alternating hunger and nausea she was feeling were normal or not.

She found some information about a severe kind of morning sickness called hyperemesis gravidarum but she was pretty sure her symptoms didn't qualify for that...or at least she hoped not.

She realized she really didn't know much of anything about being pregnant and she wanted to make sure she was taking care of her body for the baby. She found a great website that was geared towards first-time moms and started to read the list of FAQs on the main page. She was doing all this during her lunch time and she had to be careful. She needed to get something to eat because skipping meals couldn't be good for a baby…

One of the first things she came across was an entry asking when you were supposed to have your first prenatal visit with the doctor. Her eyes widened when she realized she should've probably made one as soon as she found out she was pregnant. She'd have to call and make an appointment later, it was too risky to chance someone walking in on that phone call.

* * *

Clary climbed into Jace's car, so grateful that her nausea seemed to have subsided sometime before her last class. She felt almost normal for the first time all day.

"Do you want to come over for awhile?" Jace asked, looking hopeful.

"Yeah, I'm not feeling sick anymore so I think I'm fine."

"You know you could've come over even if you were feeling sick. I don't want you to hide things from me, just like you don't want me to hide things from you. We're in this together, remember?"

"I have to call and make my first doctor appointment. I learned today that I should've already gone for one so..."

"Just let me know when it is, baby and I'll be right there with you."

Clary's heart clenched. She knew how Jace felt about her, he let her know quite often but she was exhausted from being sick all the time and slightly emotional and he'd never know how much everything he was doing, meant to her.

He slid his hand onto her leg and she smiled at him. They hadn't gotten anywhere near as much time to spend together over the last few weeks as he would've liked. For some reason, his dad had been home more often and between school, practice, meetings and both of them feeling sick, they hadn't been alone in what felt like forever.

Clary could tell by the sly looks Jace was giving her that he couldn't wait to get her home and even though she was trying to be subtle about it, she was just as eager.

Looking at Jace alone made her want to throw herself at him. Throw in some pregnancy hormones and the fact that he was really trying to change for her and their baby and she was almost ready to combust. She wasn't even at the beginning of her second trimester yet and if her internet research was correct, that was the time during pregnancy when you were supposed to be the horniest.

She placed her hand over his and squeezed, smiling shyly up at him. He absentmindedly brought it to his mouth and kissed it before pulling up to his house and parking his car in the normal spot.

* * *

When they got to Jace's room, Clary sat down on the bed, kicked her shoes off and tucked her feet underneath herself. Jace joined her a moment later, initially sitting down next to her but it didn't take him long to pull her so that they were lying face to face with his arms wrapped around her.

He nuzzled his face into her hair, breathing her in like she was the only fresh air he would ever get. He placed a few kisses on her neck before he spoke.

"I fucking missed you, baby"

She looked into his eyes and seeing how truly hard the last month had been for him, conveyed in the expression on his face, she wished she could think of something profound and inspiring to say. But the only thing she could focus on was how amazing it felt to be held in his arms so she decided the best way to comfort him was to return his sentiments.

"I missed you too, Jace"

He groaned and pressed his lips to hers, soft at first but becoming more demanding by the second. He had almost forgotten how incredible it felt to kiss her like this, having her melt into his body, knowing that she was about to give herself to him.

Jace pulled Clary's shirt over her head and brought his mouth back to hers. When they were both gasping for breath, he began to trail kisses down her body until he got to her chest. He reached around her and undid the clasp on her bra, pulling it off to reveal her perky breasts. They had gotten slightly bigger and her nipples were already hard. Jace knew they were more sensitive and he couldn't wait to hear Clary's moans the moment he put his lips around one. He latched onto the left while lightly tugging on the right.

"Oh, god, Jace." Clary moaned.

He gently rolled on top of her, continuing to lick and nip and suck until he could feel Clary start to squirm below him. He'd never given anyone an orgasm just from playing with their nipples but damn if it wasn't one of the hottest things he'd ever seen.

"I need more," Clary whined filthily from underneath him. She could feel herself starting to get wet. But rather than make her come just yet Jace held himself up and tilted her chin up to his lips. Right before he kissed her he whispered: "I will _always_ love you." Then their lips clashed and his tongue rolled over Clary's, he nipped the tip of her tongue and she whimpered. Jace's tongue fucked her mouth and finally, she couldn't take it anymore.

"Please, babe, let me suck you off," Clary begged.

"Mmmm… no, I'm going to eat you out." Jace said huskily. Clary's face was already red from the attention he'd been giving her nipples but now? She was completely flushed.

"God, Jace," Clary whispered.

"Just lay back and enjoy," Jace said slipping her jeans off her followed by the black lace thong she was wearing.

He used his thumb to rub slow, secretive circles along her clit making her back arch up. He dragged his finger down her wet slit, teasing her. Her hips bucked and she tried to grind on his hand. "Ohmygod, please Jace, stop teasing me!" Clary said breathily.

"Shh." He simply said. He pushed two fingers into her wet pussy and she screamed it felt so good. Clary watched as Jace positioned himself between her legs and lapped up her juices. Damn! It felt so good! He continued to finger her and finally found her g-spot and rubbed it in little circles making Clary's back and shoulders fly into the air. She gasped deeply and felt warmth rush over her like waves of fire and she screamed out Jace's name.

She watched as he quickly divested himself of all of his clothes and she got a good look at his body. He was a fucking Adonis, perfectly sculpted, hairless in all the right places. She brushed her hand over his abdomen and felt the ridges there. God! She was a very lucky woman.

She barely noticed as he lined himself up at her entrance and gave her a look, a look that asked her consent. She smiled down at him and ruffled his hair. "For the love of god just fuck me!"

He pushed into her then and she felt the too-tight feeling that she felt the night she lost her virginity…. no, the night she got pregnant. He was waiting for her to urge him on, and she did, scraping her nails down his back, he made his strokes slow and deep and _god_ she was going to come again.

She looked him in the eye and saw his pupils blown wide with love and lust. "Come for me, Clary." He begged her.

"Fuck! I'm close!" He pushed deep, deep inside her and she felt him brush her cervix… holy god that felt amazing. Her first orgasm had been good but the second? The world seemed the hang in the balance for a moment, tilting off its axis as she looked into his eyes and saw nothing but love and devotion. She felt his strokes becoming less regular as her pussy milked him dry. She felt him coming inside her… it felt warm and sweet.

They were both breathing hard and Jace was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. "That was fucking _amazing_ ," Jace said before rolling off Clary.

* * *

Jace and Clary were lying in their post-coital bliss with her back to his front. One of his arms was under her head while the other was resting on her stomach. He placed a light kiss under her ear.

"I love you, Clary"

She turned her head to gaze into his eyes. "I love you too," she said. She laid her head back down on his arm and snuggled closer to him.

"I'm going to go talk to your brother tomorrow," Jace said.

She slowly rolled herself over so her whole body was facing him. She was feeling lazy from her intense orgasm but she propped herself up on her elbow, trying to keep herself awake enough to address the issue at hand.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Jace? He's an asshole and I highly doubt that one conversation will change that. I know you can take care of yourself but I hate to think of anything bad happening to you and I don't just mean physically. Fighting him can have real-life consequences." Clary admonished.

"I know, baby. I promise I'll be careful but this is something that I have to do…for all of us. I do love that you worry about me," he said, smiling before burying his face in her neck. Jace tickled her and she laughed and tried to escape but he only held her tighter.

"Jace, stop, I can't take it." She said, giggling. He relented and placed a sweet kiss on her lips. "Besides, I'm always going to worry about you. We're a team, remember?" Clary reminded him.

"That we are."

* * *

A/N: Hey guys! Make sure to leave a review if you liked what you read!

As for recs Reputation just came out, and I'm digging that. I just started Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo! Leave me a review with your thoughts on the story and anything you're crazy about!


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: I'm terribly sorry about the gap between chapters! reppinda503 went on hiatus for a few months and i honestly couldn't write these chapters without her!

Give her stories a peek!

* * *

[ J. Herondale ] We should talk.

[ J. Morgenstern ] Fuck you. Go sit on a cactus.

[ J. Herondale ] Very mature. Seriously let's meet up somewhere.

[ J. Morgenstern ] Seriously, get the fuck outta here.

[ J. Herondale ] Look, I realize you have the maturity of a 5-year-old but you care about Clary don't you? I'm the father of her baby. She wants me in her life and I'm not going anywhere. We should talk.

[ J. Morgenstern ] Not if I have anything to say about it. She would do better raising that baby on her own than with a drug addicted asshole like you.

[ J. Herondale ] Man up, Jon. What kind of brother wishes his little sister would have to be a single mother at sixteen?

[ J. Morgenstern ] The kind who knows what kind of life lies ahead of her if she has to take care of a junkie and a baby.

[ J. Herondale ] Jon, we need to meet, face to face. The situation has changed and it's time we hashed this thing out. We're too old to be acting like children and I know you're better than that.

[ J. Morgenstern ] Who are you calling a child? I'm looking out for my family but I guess if you're willing to take the risk of having your face punched in then I should give you the opportunity.

[ J. Herondale ] First, there will be no violence because if you hit me, trust that I'll have no problem hitting back. Second, this conversation is long overdue so I need you to listen and not act like the douche we both know you can be when you don't get your way. This is for Clary and it's about time you started respecting her as a woman and not just trying to bulldoze her because she's your sibling.

[ J. Morgenstern ] You're not really making a case for me to meet up with you. But I love my sister, regardless of what you say and if this is what she needs then I'll show up. Where are we meeting and when?

[ J. Herondale ] Tomorrow morning. Football field. 8 am. Don't be late.

[ J. Morgenstern ] I'll be there.

* * *

Dew was still fresh on the grass when Jace saw Jonathan Morgenstern walking toward him. It was a bit foggy that morning and Jace sighed, preparing for the storm that would likely be this conversation. He sincerely hoped this conversation was going to go well. He needed it to. Clary didn't need the stress and neither one of them needed the hassle. "Hey, man," Jace said, nodding in Jon's direction.

"Hey." He toed the ground with his foot, looking unsure of himself for one of the first times since Jace had known him. Jace waited patiently for him to start speaking. He may have been the one to call this meeting between them but it didn't mean he didn't get just a little pleasure out of watching Jon's discomfort.

"So you wanted to talk about Clarissa?" Jonathan finally asked.

"Yeah. Look, the situation has changed. I'm getting help. I have a sponsor and I go to meetings a couple times a week. I'm not the kid you used to know."

"You're right you're not… you're worse." Jonathan said shortly, "You got my underage sister drunk and fucked her without a condom. You'll be lucky if you get out of this without criminal charges." Jonathan bit out.

Jace rubbed his temple, he felt a headache coming on. "No! We used a condom. She even got the morning after pill."

"So you're really just that much of a fuck up?" Jon said, rubbing the back of his neck. Jace looked at him, dumbfounded. Of course, he knew how to use a condom. Did people not understand that no form of birth control was 100% effective? "Look I can already see we're just going to go around in circles here so why don't I hit you now and get it over with?" Jon said

"Jonathan!" Jace snapped. "Clary is going to have a baby. A real, living, breathing human being that she and I are going to have to clothe and feed and nurture. I would be so much happier if you could be a part of that instead of causing problems for us? Clary wants you, her only sibling, to be a part of it too."

Jonathan was silent for a long moment. Clearly, he needed to think it over. "Clary really wants this?" He asked.

"Yes, of course, she does. You shouldn't even have to ask. She loves you." Jace said.

Jonathan sighed, he paced back and forth for a moment and then stopped in front of Jace. "Fuck, yeah ok. I can't let Clary go through this with just your sorry ass."

"Yeah, well my 'sorry ass' doesn't need you as a babysitter but I would do anything for your sister and this is what _she_ needs so let's bury this shit and make sure we're there for her," Jace admonished.

Jonathan was silent but looked contrite. Jace wasn't sure what his next move would be but he didn't want to play games, he just wanted him to agree to support his sister. Suddenly, Jonathan looked up at him and reached out his hand to shake. Jace stared at it for a few moments in shock. He wasn't expecting it to be that easy. He did have to work at it a little bit but it seemed like Jonathan gave in way too quickly.

He didn't know how to react now that he'd actually gotten him to agree though. He was going through a myriad of emotions. Happy...surprised...irritated...pissed!

Before he realized what had happened, he was rubbing his knuckles and Jon was flat on his ass again. He knew he needed to say something. He'd just tried to make peace with him and then a short time later, hit him in the face.

"We may have to be civil to each other and that's okay, I can do that, but you can't fuck with my friends and expect nothing to happen to you. You're lucky you got off with just that. If you ever do some shit like that again, all bets are off."

Jonathan grudgingly nodded from his place on the still slightly slick ground. He hauled himself back up and after one last look at Jace, he walked off the field, back in the direction he came from.

* * *

Jace felt a lot better by the time he got back home. He had things at least at a neutral point with Jonathan and he felt a small amount of vindication after the punch to his chin. With the way his recovery was going so far, he was optimistic. The first thing he wanted to do was call Clary and let her know how everything went but he preferred to see her in person rather than talk to her on the phone.

He missed her when they weren't together and that was the first time he could really remember having that feeling about a girl. Now that she was carrying his child, he felt even more drawn to her and he couldn't explain it. He was still in high school and when he thought about most guys in his situation, he saw them running. He could never do that. Clary and the baby were his to love and take care of. Despite how it was going to change his life, he wanted it, he wanted a family with Clary, so much that even football paled in comparison.

He had to see her, not even necessarily for sex. He wouldn't say no, of course, his girlfriend was beautiful and he was a guy after all but he just wanted to be with her. He pulled out his phone to text her and make sure she was up.

[ J. Herondale ] Hey, babe. Are you up?

[ C. Fray ] Yeah, for about an hour now. I was feeling sick again this morning. Are you done talking with my brother?

[ J. Herondale ] I just got back home. I was going to call and tell you about it but I thought I'd check and see if you were awake first.

[ C. Fray ] You could just come over. No one is here.

[ J. Herondale ] Good. I wanted to see you anyway. I just didn't want to sound like a girl.

[ C. Fray ] Whatever, asshole. Just get over here.

[ J. Herondale ] See you in 10.

* * *

Clary was on the phone when Jace walked in. She put a finger to her lips. "Yes, I need an appointment. I'm 10 weeks pregnant and I haven't been in to see the doctor yet. Could you put me on the cancellation list?"

"Oh, you have a cancellation on Tuesday? That sounds perfect." She waved Jace into the living room and patted the cushion next to her. She hung up the phone after putting the appointment in her phone.

"Hey, you," Jace said, leaning in and kissing her hello.

Clary kissed him back and lingered on the kiss. They were just gentle pecks but Clary could feel that she wanted more… She needed to get a grip, it was only 9 am! Her hormones were already starting to affect her and she had a feeling that she'd be seeing that increased libido make an appearance sooner rather than later. "So you came to tell me about what happened between you and my brother?"

"Yeah, it was pretty interesting." Clary went to interject but he stopped her. "Before you interrupt me, just let me get it all out. This is what happened…"

After Jace gave her the rundown of what transpired, they spent most of the rest of the day in bed talking and just holding each other. They spoke about their hopes for the future and the love that was growing for the tiny human that hadn't even seen the outside world yet. Clary explained to Jace how excited she was about her appointment and asked him if he wanted to come. There was no way Jace was passing up the opportunity to potentially see their child, even if it didn't actually look like a baby yet so of course, he agreed. After some light fooling around, they eventually ended up falling asleep in each other's arms, spooning, with Jace's hand protectively resting over her stomach.

* * *

Tuesday dawned gray and early. The days were getting shorter and Clary woke up in the dark at 6:30.

She texted Jace, she knew he'd be up.

[ C. Fray ] Today's the day!

[ J. Herondale ] I know! I just got done running for the morning. Hitting the shower.

[ C. Fray ] Think of me!

[ J. Herondale ] Always.

Clary hit the shower and when she got out she took the time to look at herself in the mirror. Her belly was rounder and firmer than it had been. Today she was officially 11 weeks pregnant and she could feel the morning sickness coming on. God, why was this necessary? Wasn't pregnancy supposed to be a tranquil, peaceful time in a woman's life?

She toweled off and had to forego makeup and blow drying her hair because she needed to eat something (and pray to god she didn't just hurl-a-whirl it back up).

She found that only her cheer sweatpants really fit her now. She wore a tank top and no bra. She shuffled a Mahopac hoodie over the tank so no weird guys would leer at her tits.

She shoved some crackers into her mouth and drank down some iced decaf coffee.

Wait… that decaf coffee hadn't been there the night before? Holy shit did her mom… know?

She looked at the sharpie writing on the jug, it was Jon's handwriting, very similar to their mother's but not quite the same.

She smiled momentarily before she vaulted herself into the bathroom to be sick. A lesson she should really learn, wait until after getting sick to put nourishment into her body.

* * *

She sighed. Jace and she had both skipped their morning classes to be here. They figured if they went in around noon it wouldn't be too suspicious. Clary had lied and said she had a dentist appointment for a toothache. Jace had pleaded a stomach ache. They both had notes.

"Clarissa?" One of the nurses came out and said.

She and Jace both got up and headed toward the nurse. The nurse led them through a maze of rooms, rooms Clary hadn't seen last time she was here because they'd been seen on an emergency basis.

They eventually ended up in a big room with the lights down low.

A woman with curly long brown hair and a name tag that said "Technician" with the words "Pamela" in cursive scrawl.

"Is this the baby's father?" Pamela asked.

"Yes." Clary said, "Can he stay?"

"Of course," Pamela said with a smile.

Jace looked a little nervous. This was when it all became real. What if he passed out?

No. He wouldn't be that guy.

They were taken into a room and Clary was asked to repeat her name and date of birth. They asked her to undress and handed her a gown. She absolutely despised those paper gowns but she supposed they were a necessary evil. The nurse said the doctor would be with her as soon as she could and to go ahead and get changed. Clary took off her clothes to slip on the garment they'd provided and then she gingerly climbed onto the bed. Jace sat down in the chair next to her and reached out for her hand. Clary placed her hand in his and gave him a nervous look.

"It'll be alright, Clary. We're in this together, remember?" She nodded at him, if a little timidly, in agreement. If Jace was being honest with himself, he was just as nervous as Clary, if not more but he was trying to stay strong for her. He needed to show her that he could take care of her.

It wasn't long before the door opened and the doctor entered the room holding a folder in her hands. Clary could see it had her last name at the top so she assumed she was just going over her information.

"Clary? Hi, I don't know if you remember but I'm Dr. Moon. I saw you when you were here before. I'll be with you throughout your pregnancy." She shook Clary's hand and turned to Jace, holding her hand out to him as well. "And you must be the father?"

"Yeah, I'm Jace," he said taking her hand and shaking it.

"Well, just a few things to go over and then we can get to the fun stuff."

They talked about Jace's medical history and asked about the symptoms that Clary had been experiencing so far. Clary glanced at Jace and even blushed a tiny bit when she had to explain that she thought she was starting to feel the effects of an increased sex drive. She could feel his sense his smirk and eyes burning a hole in her head as she continued to talk to the doctor. It seemed he had no problem with the need for more sex.

"Alright, well now that we got all that out of the way, let's take a look at your baby and see if we can hear a heartbeat. Now, this might be a little uncomfortable, Clary. It's a transvaginal ultrasound so you're gonna need to put your feet in the stirrups like last time."

Clary followed Dr. Moon's instructions and it wasn't long before they would see a gray blob on the screen next to them.

"There," she pointed out. "That's your baby. It's very small now, about as big as a lime."

Clary and Jace both looked at each other, both with very similar emotions in their eyes. Clary was on the verge of tears and Jace just couldn't believe that he had a part in making this tiny person that was growing inside the love of his life. Everything was getting more real by the second. He squeezed down on her hand to ground himself and she squeezed back just as tight as if to let him know that she was right there with him. She always seemed to know exactly what he needed.

"Can we get pictures?" Jace asked, hopefully.

"Yes, I'll make sure we get some copies printed up for you. Now...we're pretty much out of the window where we'd have to worry about miscarriage. Everything looks like it's progressing well but I want the nurse to take some blood just to make sure, okay?" Clary shuddered a little when she heard the word miscarriage but nodded nonetheless. "Alright, now to hear this baby's heartbeat."

She pulled out another machine and before they realized what was happening, they heard a fast whooshing noise.

"That's...that's our baby," Jace said, she looked at him with tears in her eyes, unable to hold them back anymore when she saw how excited he was getting.

"Yep, that's our baby," Clary said and Jace smiled at her widely and laid the mother of all kisses on her. She melted into him, completely forgetting that there was anyone else in the room.

After a few seconds, Dr. Moon cleared her throat and they separated, both blushing furiously.

"Congratulations to both of you!" Dr. Moon said. "You'll need to come back in when you're 18 weeks. Then, if you want we can hopefully tell you if it's a boy or girl! Make sure to call us if you have any questions. In the next two weeks, your morning sickness should subside but if it doesn't please give us a call, and of course, if you have any bleeding or cramping you should call us right away or just dial 911." Dr. Moon advised.

Clary nodded. She couldn't imagine losing the baby now, not after everything.

"Clary, you can get dressed and just roll up your sleeve for the nurse when she comes in."

Jace stood up and shook her hand, "Thank you so much."

"Not a problem."

"There is one thing I thought we should ask you…" Jace said, pausing. "Clary's parents and my dad. How are we going to tell them?"

Dr. Moon smiled nervously. "Clary won't be able to hide her pregnancy for much longer. By the time she's in her second trimester, two weeks from now, there won't be any doubts."

"So we basically only have two weeks to tell them?" Jace said, sounding horrified.

"Jace, calm down, remember my brother is on our side now?"

Jace rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'll leave you two to discuss it but I'm sure, based on the way Clary's dressed today that she's already having problems hiding the bump…Clary is extremely petite so this will be a big change for her body. In my experience, it's best to just be honest and having someone to lean on certainly never hurts."

"Ok, thanks, Doc."

"You're welcome." Dr. Moon said leaving Clary to get dressed.

"We're going to need your brother sooner than I thought…" Jace grumbled.

"It's fine, he loves me, he won't let my parents throw me out over this," Clary said, as she pulled her gown off and got dressed. "He made decaf iced coffee for me this morning."

"You told him about the appointment?"

"Yeah, briefly."

"Ok… well, I'm glad we have Jon on our side to help with your parent, but what about my dad? I doubt he is going to have a positive reaction to this and we don't have a buffer for that conversation."

"That was my thought exactly. He's going to think I'm trying to trap you with a baby or some bullshit. Our parents aren't exactly broke. We live in a nice neighborhood and we both basically have mansions for houses. How do you think Jon got his R8? If you're thinking he paid for it, you're wrong."

Jace scoffed. "I knew it. So what are you trying to say?"

"That you still need to hand in that paperwork about your scholarship. Don't worry about me. I'll get my GED and come live with you in the Bronx, and we can get our own place."

"Clary I can't ask you to give up art school for me."

"You're not. It's just a delay. I'll go when our kid starts going to school."

Jace smiled ruefully. "It's not the future I want for you."

Clary let out a frustrated groan as she put on her bottoms. Her cheer pants were just getting way too small. "I want a family with you. That's my top priority. Art school can wait." She pulled her tank down and tried to cover up the fact her belly was showing just a bit. "Ughhh!"

"We can go clothes shopping for you this weekend."

"Oh thank God."

Clary was finally fully dressed despite her clothes not entirely fitting. The nurse knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Clary called.

"Hi, I'm just here to take some blood?"

"I'll wait outside, needles give me the jitters."

Clary knew exactly why too, so she kissed him, chastely, and let him go.

The lady who drew her blood was good and it didn't hurt too much. "We'll call you to give you the results as soon as they come back."

"Thanks," Clary said, rolling her sleeve down.

* * *

When they checked out, they got pictures of the baby and Clary was in awe. She still could believe that the lime-sized blob in the image was growing inside her but she became more excited the longer she thought about it. She sent a snap of the picture to Jon, wanting to share her elation with him.

Jace couldn't stop staring at the copy he was given either. He knew their baby was going to be beautiful and was so happy that Clary was the woman who he'd be sharing the experience with. He put the photo in his wallet for safekeeping and they left the clinic.

The rest of day was uneventful. They both headed to school and spent the rest of the day attending their regular classes, holding hands in the hallway whenever the opportunity arose.

* * *

That night, when Clary got dropped off by Jace, Jon was waiting for her in the living room. She sat down next to him on the couch.

"Shouldn't you be on campus?"

"I went to my one class today. It was just a four-hour lab."

"Ewww! One class for four hours? Booooring!" Clary said, laughing. "So where are Luke and mom?"

"Out in Manhattan for dinner."

"Oh, good. I kind of wanted to talk to you…"

"About?" Jon asked, timidly.

"So are you and Jace really done with all of this macho bullshit that you have going on. I know you both have your differences but you guys and this baby are the most important people in my life, Jon. I need you to be on board with this."

"Yeah, me and Herondale worked it out. No more drama for you to worry about. I promise. Can't be causing undue stress to you or the baby," Jon said, giving her a side hug. "So, I saw the grey blob that's supposedly my nephew or niece." he laughed.

She whacked him on the arm. "That's not very nice." He smiled at her, letting her know he was only joking.

"Are those clothes supposed to be about two sizes too small for you?" Jon inclined a brow, Clary couldn't believe he'd noticed.

"Are you saying I'm getting fat? Clary glared at him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"No, I'm saying you're starting to look noticeably with child." She pouted, knowing he was right.

"Jace said he was going to take me maternity clothes shopping this weekend. All my current clothes are like size double zero."

"Well, you've always been pretty tiny. Come upstairs, I've got some old clothes you can wear."

"Joooon! I don't want to wear boys clothes! Especially yours. Have you looked in the mirror recently? I'll be swimming in them."

"So you'd rather people know you're pregnant before you're ready to tell them?"

She flushed. "No. But when we asked the doctor how much longer I'd be able to hide it, she said no more than a couple weeks. Like you said, it's becoming pretty obvious," she said, stroking her small stomach.

"Shiiiiit. So…. what are you going to do about mom and Luke?"

"Enlist my favorite brother in helping me not get kicked out." Clary smiled, deviously.

"I'm your _only_ brother." Jon sighed. "Mom would never kick you out. But she might kill Jace."

Clary looked slightly scared. "Please help us, Jon? They can't kill Jace. He's the father! And we're already going to have enough trouble with his dad as it is."

"Ok, ok." Jon conceded, standing up and pulling Clary in for a real hug. "You've got me. I'll help." He kissed her on the top of the head. " Now please let me give you some clothes!"

"Fine. I guess I can cross-dress for a few days."

"It's just sweatpants and t-shirts. And if it makes you feel better. They should be a couple of sizes smaller than what I currently wear."

"It'll work. Thanks," she said as they walked to his room and gathered what would be her wardrobe until she could get some clothes to fit her constantly growing body.


End file.
